It was early on a recent Saturday morning when Anastasia Bolychevtsev and her housemates decided they wanted breakfast. Bolychevtsev, dressed in a white bralette, a denim skirt and sneakers, and Anna Ziglar, wearing a tie-dye crop top and denim shorts, walked into Henry’s Diner in downtown Burlington.
But they never sat down — let alone placed an order. The hostess told Bolychevtsev, who is a transgender woman, that she would need to cover up with another shirt to be seated. Ziglar recalled the hostess mentioning that there were children in the diner.
“I was so mortified,” Bolychevtsev, 54, said in an interview. “We left and then we went and got breakfast somewhere else.”
The next night, July 18, she and a few friends sat in their kitchen rehashing the interaction at Henry’s. And then they hatched a plan.
Lucia Blanchard, Bolychevtsev’s 19-year-old cisgender housemate, walked into Henry’s at around the same time the following morning, a Monday, wearing the same bralette and her shortest shorts. She said she intentionally wanted to show more skin than Bolychevtsev had days earlier.
“When I went in there, like the shorts I was wearing, you could see my butt tattoo, I’m gonna be honest,” Blanchard said. “I have a butt tattoo of the Energizer bunny and you could definitely see the bottom portion of it.”
Blanchard was seated at the counter without incident. She took a selfie with the menu. She asked one of the servers to take a photo with her. She texted both to the house group chat.
Henry’s Diner was established in 1925, and is widely considered a Burlington landmark — the kind of place where a New York Times columnist might meet with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for an interview. Its location just off Church Street also makes it a popular breakfast spot the morning after late-night revelry.
And in a year in which summer fashion trends toward tinier, bra-like tops, Blanchard said Bolychevtsev’s outfit was hardly more daring than what she sees other women wearing out.
Bolychevtsev’s experience at the diner left her wondering what outfits are OK and how that is adjudicated.
“I try to look at everybody’s perspectives. Does the business really feel that this is, you know, like inappropriate clothes for breakfast?” Bolychevtsev said. “If so, fine — as long as it’s across the board.”
Henry’s apologizes on Facebook
Henry’s Diner has since publicly apologized for its handling of the incident. One of the co-owners, Naomi Maglaris, said she has talked to her staff about customer dress and is looking into sensitivity training.
According to Maglaris, who owns and operates the diner with her husband, William, different staff members interacted with Bolychevtsev and Blanchard. Maglaris said servers are supposed to come to her with any concerns about customers’ dress, and her staff didn’t do so in this case.
“All I know is what I’ve been told by employees: that they were very revealing, not appropriate clothing. … It’s definitely not an intentional target on anybody. That’s not what it was meant to be,” Maglaris said. “It was basically done without my knowledge, in innocence.”
Maglaris said she only heard about the incident several days later, after Bolychevtsev wrote about her experience on Facebook. Bolychevtsev posted on both her personal feed and in the Sensi-Babeington Facebook group, a private group started in 2015 for LGBTQ+ and femme people in the Burlington area. The group has since grown to more than 4,700 members.
Bolychevtsev said she received a “slew of comments,” most of which were expressions of support or anger on her behalf. Some called for a boycott of Henry’s.
Maglaris said that later that week she received an email that shared a link to Bolychevtsev’s post and pointed out that Henry’s Facebook page was down.
Maglaris said she had been unaware that the Facebook page was inaccessible, and that the situation was unrelated to online criticism. Henry’s page has since been restored, and the diner posted a public apology on Sunday, July 25.
“Our deepest apology to the person who was affected by this,” the post reads. “We have always supported everyone in our community and will continue to do so.”
Maglaris said she has spoken to the server who asked Bolychevtsev to cover up.
“It’s been very stressful, because obviously we don’t like people saying bad things about us,” she said. “We serve everyone, doesn’t matter who they are.”
Maglaris said she has since instructed staff to seat all customers, regardless of dress, unless they are topless or their genitals are exposed. The restaurant has also added a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” sign on the door in recent weeks, though she said that was unrelated to this incident.
Standards in public-facing businesses
Vermont’s anti-discrimination laws for public accomodations prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, among several other factors. They apply to any business that offers goods or services to the general public.
Federal laws that address discrimination in public accomodations do not address sex, gender identity or sexual orientation, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Gustavo Mercado Muñiz, transgender program coordinator at the Pride Center of Vermont, said there’s a long history of trans people facing heightened scrutiny and policing of their dress in public spaces, whether from law enforcement or private organizations.
“Especially trans women and trans folks who are on the feminine part of the gender spectrum, we’re asked to cover up more, we’re asked to show less skin, we’re told that the way we dress is inappropriate, even if it is perfectly acceptable for cis people,” they said.
Mercado Muñiz said when trans individuals face repeated judgment or confrontation over their sartorial choices, “it takes a really, really intense toll on folks’ mental health.” They said trans people are often challenged about their clothing in spaces ranging from the workplace to the beach.
Bolychevtsev has lived in Burlington for more than a decade, and has been living openly as a woman for the past five years.
She’s noticed improved awareness and education around gender identity over the past several years, and said this interaction was unusual among her experiences at Burlington businesses.
“With however many years I have left, I’m embracing my womanhood as much as I can,” Bolychevtsev said. “I’ve got a hard core group of girlfriends, and we all know we’re strongest when we’re with other women.”
