By Dover O’Conner, and H. Bryant
Uptown, Chicago — On the night of March 15th, Val, a young trans woman beginning her transition, was kicked out of the women’s restroom of Uptown Lounge, a late night bar owned by Gene Stokes and his wife, Julie Clarkson-Stokes. Val was kicked out even though the bar has been a community hub for trans and queer people in the neighborhood for years.
This reputation for being a safe gathering place for trans people is why Val and her friend went to the lounge in the first place. However, bar staff and owners destroyed this reputation through a series of unnecessarily cruel and discriminatory actions that night.
First, a barback stopped one of Val’s friends to tell her that Val “wasn’t alllowed in the women’s restroom.” Then, after Val continued to use the womens restroom—as she is a woman—she heard a man come into the bathroom and yell,
“IS THERE A MAN IN HERE?”
A group of cis women, exiting the restroom, “Yes!” in response.
Even though Val’s friend stood up for her, security responded simply that “it doesn’t matter,” and “I don’t care.” The girls were then further disrespected and embarrassed by bar staff by being forcibly kicked out of the bar, with a security guard keeping a hand on Val’s back and pushing her out of the exit.
The girls were given no explanation from security, and no option but to leave, as the bar had proved itself no longer safe for transgender people.
This was Val’s first time at Uptown Lounge, but her friend who invited her had been a long-time regular. The two were in disbelief and shock.
Val sent an email to the Uptown Lounge owners Gene Stokes and wife Julie Clarkson-Stokes asking for an explanation of their unabashedly transphobic treatment of her, charitably hoping that it was just a simple misunderstanding that could be resolved with an apology.
Stokes and Clarkson-Stokes, however, insisted that they do not consider Val to be a woman in their response. They said that they “had to take action,” claiming, “We don’t have a gender-neutral restroom, and that’s a real limitation on our end. In the meantime, if you’re presenting in male clothing, using the women’s restroom is likely to put us in that same tough spot again.”
After the owners privately responded to Val, they tried to cover themselves in a backhanded fib, twisting the situation.
In a public post made on March 21st, they said that Val and her friend were kicked out for using the same stall—a blatant lie which they have since guiltily removed.
Val knew this response was indicative of a larger issue than just her experience and promptly made it public. She had originally posted a screen-shot of the original response to her email asking for an apology on social media on March 16th to bring awareness to the situation; but after this attempt to lie and victim blame by the owners, it was clear that their intentions were poor. On March 22nd, Val followed up her initial post with another that included a call out of the lies, and demands for action to rectify the bigoted wrongs that were being defended by the Stokes.
“We demand a written public statement apologizing to the transgender community for the blatant transphobia that occurred on March 15th, 2026 and for the constant victim blaming you repeatedly entertain.”
“We demand an expressed commitment to ongoing collaboration and accountability with the LGBTQ+ community regarding policies that concern our safety and well-being,” the post read.
Stokes and Clarkson-Stokes received a copy of the public statement with the demands digitally on Sunday, March 22nd, with the 27th as a deadline for a response.
One of Val’s supporters had independently delivered the statement in person on the 22nd. When doing so, the supporter talked with Stokes, who blandly stated “trans patrons can use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity.” He has refused to make this statement publicly and refused to acknowledge any wrong doing in the bars actions.
When Val was told of this nothing burger of a conversation, the conclusion was made that more needed to be done. Val and her friend reached out to community members and held a peaceful protest that night. They initiated sit-ins, coming into the lounge and putting on shirts saying “female presenting clothing” before taking up space at the bar.
People’s Defense Chicago is now helping these women fight for their demands with an on-going boycott on the business, a protest schedule, and a media campaign.
The bar’s insistence on removing transgender people from public life comes amid the escalating assault on the existence of trans people by the imperialist state and the most reactionary section of the capitalist class. This renewed war upon queer people is intimately related to the general assault on women as the decaying capitalist state seeks to shift the burden of social reproduction on to working class families in an attempt to put off the impending economic crisis.
It is no coincidence that the present moment sees decreasing wages, rising costs, and increasing unemployment at the same moment we see the ruling class lament over “slow population growth” causing “strained economic growth,” coinciding with restrictions on abortion rights, the removal of workplace protections for women, the relegation of women to domestic labor, and attempts to eliminate trans or otherwise queer people from social life. Economic depression looms over us like a swollen black cloud, and the capitalist class is willing to go to great reactionary lengths to protect their profits. In their eyes, the very existence of transgender and queer people is a threat to reproduction of the very source of their immense profits — workers. Thus, in the ongoing process of fascistization carried out to the benefit of their accumulation of wealth and maintenance of political power, we are among the first targeted.
The experience of these women at Uptown Lounge does not exist in isolation from this political-economic process. It is a battle within a much larger conflict between the exploited and the exploiter, the oppressed and the oppressor. People’s Defense Chicago calls on all working class and progressive people — trans or cis, queer or not — to partake in this boycott, to join the protests, and aid in the media campaign.
“I don’t want a public apology for me, I want an apology for the community,” said Val. “It could be me, it could be you, it could be anyone.”
