Victoria's Secret Under Fire for Apology to Transgender Woman

Victoria's Secret has received backlash from people online after the company apologized to a transgender woman for having a bad experience in a store dressing room.

The transgender woman who goes by @Microdragons1 talked about the incident on X, formerly Twitter on Monday, writing: "I went through a thoroughly dehumanizing experience at Victoria's Secret today due to my status as a trans woman."

Nearly 600 anti-trans bills have been introduced across 49 states this year, according to Trans Legislation Tracker. These bills focus on barring gender-affirming care for minors, restricting the use of pronouns that differ from the ones aligned with a student's biological sex in schools, and redefining venues that host drag shows as "adult-oriented" businesses.

"I was trying to find a cute bra at Victoria's Secret, and they made me wait until every cis woman left the dressing rooms before I could go into just one of them. They even made other cis women wait until I'd had my turn so no cis women would be in any of the 5 other rooms," the transgender woman said in the thread.

Victoria's Secret, which is no stranger to scandals, replied to @Microdragons1: "We're sorry to hear about your experience in our store and we would love to speak to you directly," and gave the company's contact information.

Newsweek attempted to contact @Microdragons1 via X, but the account is no longer accessible to the public.

A spokesperson for Victoria's Secret told Newsweek via email when asked about the incident: "We are committed to ensuring a great experience for our customers, so we always welcome feedback. Our associates are focused on providing exceptional customer service, especially during this busy shopping season."

Some on social media sided with the store employees and thought that the company should not have apologized to the transgender woman.

Sall Grover, founder of a female social network called Giggle, wrote on X: "A Victoria's Secret staff member tried her best to create boundaries because a man with blatantly no regard for boundaries wanted to indulge his fetish in public & now he's complaining about it because he didn't have an adequate audience for his pathetic fetish."

Several people pointed out previous posts from @Microdragons1 that showed off her naked body.

"The fact you need there to be other women in the changing rooms with you or else you cry to corporate speaks volumes," X user @HazelAppleyard_ wrote. "It's not affirming enough just to be there? No. You have to make actual women feel uncomfortable in order to get your euphoria boner."

X user @Serena_Partrick told Victoria's Secret to "delete this," when they posted its apology to X. "Stand with women."

Another X user @SherryPence told Victoria's Secret, "don't alienate 50% of the world's population because some male pervert wans to 'get off' in ladies spaces. We are watching you very closely!"

"Will @VictoriasSecret budlight itself?" X user @Trestresjolie wrote, referring to when conservatives boycotted the beer brand after collaborating with the transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney this past April.

Meanwhile, others took a stance in support of marginalized people like transgender folks.

X user @blumom2015 told another X user @babybeginner to "Grow up. Stop being afraid of ppl just because they are different from you," when she said, "We, the women, are not sorry the store kept our changing room area for women."

A retired clinical psychologist, Amaya Deakins, called out @thisissavvy1's "deep-seated transphobia" saying they "invalidated her entire existence" when the X user said of the transgender woman's experience, "You weren't dehumanized. You were treated like a man."

Update 11/29/23, 7:02 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Victoria's Secret.