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A Black trans woman says her housing complex discriminated against her family and refused to respect her gender identity.
Shayla Anderson and her husband have filed a lawsuit accusing the Grand Fountain apartment complex in Richmond, Texas, of discrimination.
Anderson says the trouble began when the couple contacted the property manager to make a noise complaint.
“I went to her office, and she said, ‘I’m not going to speak with you about this,’” Anderson told KPRC. “‘I’m not going to speak with you about this, sir.’”
“She took my womanhood and crushed it by calling me, sir.”
From there, Anderson reached out to the company in charge of the apartment complex, SunRidge Management Group, who never got back to her.
After filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Anderson posted a video of the property manager approaching her husband and son. At the same time, they played basketball and accused them of not living in the building.
The building then demanded Anderson remove the video before issuing their family an eviction notice, even though they hadn’t received any warnings.
Anderson said she had not been paying rent but that her lawyers had advised her to stop due to the lawsuit.
SunRidge denied all discrimination claims in a statement and stated, “We adhere to the highest standards of managing the Grand Fountain community and comply with all fair housing laws.”
But Anderson is not backing down.
“Because you’re a big corporation, you can’t treat the little people wrong,” she said. “We have a voice as well.”
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, why don’t you move? Why don’t you get out of there?’ Because then I give them the power.”