Delaware Bar Fined Again for Transgender Bathroom Discrimination

The Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission ordered a $15,000 civil penalty against Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille after employees denied transgender woman Kaitie Sorber access to the women’s restroom and later barred her from the establishment entirely. The commission’s order, issued in July, found the bar’s policy of using the gender listed on state identification to determine bathroom access discriminatory.

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This is the second sanction against the Rehoboth Beach-area bar. In 2023 the commission fined the same venue $2,000 for refusing entry to another transgender patron who declined to have her ID scanned. Half of that earlier fine was awarded to Kathy Carpenter Brown, founder of the Delaware advocacy group Transliance, with the remainder directed to a state fund for anti-discrimination education. The bar’s owner, Bryan Derrickson, had instituted a policy that year to scan state IDs—originally intended to detect fraudulent identification—and use the gender marker to control restroom use.

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• Bryan Derrickson – Owner of Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille; testified that the policy was “easy” to implement and that the bar would follow the gender indicated on a driver’s license or other state ID.

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• Kaitie Sorber – Transgender woman who reported being forced to use the men’s bathroom, confronted, asked to re-show identification, and subsequently banned after posting about the incident on social media.

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• Kathy Carpenter Brown – Founder of Transliance; continues to call for boycotts of all businesses owned by Derrickson, including Hideout, Conch Island, and Crushers.

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• Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission – Determined that the bar’s reliance on ID gender markers violated state anti-discrimination law and ordered employee anti-discrimination training.

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The commission concluded that the bar’s actions discriminated against Sorber despite her living publicly as a woman since 2018. In addition to the $15,000 fine, the order mandates comprehensive anti-discrimination and equal-accommodation training for all employees. The commission also noted that Derrickson’s justification—citing a prior complaint from a patron whose child expressed discomfort—was insufficient because the bar had not consulted the child directly to assess any genuine threat.

The Advocate

The fine underscores Delaware’s enforcement of its anti-discrimination statutes, which were recently bolstered by the state’s adoption of a “gay and trans panic” defense ban. Local political developments include the election of Rehoboth Beach’s first openly gay mayor, Susan Stewart, and the 2024 election of U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, the nation’s first openly transgender member of Congress, reflecting broader statewide support for LGBTQ rights. Advocacy groups, led by Carpenter Brown, are leveraging the commission’s action to pressure Derrickson’s other establishments and to promote broader compliance with anti-discrimination training requirements.

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