Airbnb bans host after they turn away transgender woman
The online home rental site failed to take action for a YEAR until Shadi Petosky posted on Twitter about the incident
AIRBNB has banned a host over discrimination after they refused to rent their property to a woman who declared herself transgender.
Shadi Petosky, who is a Hollywood producer and comic book author, says she contacted the site about what happened when she was denied the rental a year ago.
She says no action was taken at the time, but after she took to Twitter on Monday, discussing the incident, Airbnb banned the host.
In her tweet, Shadi, who produces the show Yo Gabba Gabba, wrote: “I was denied @Airbnb because I disclosed that I'm trans. Airbnb did nothing. Had I not disclosed I'd be ‘dishonest’.”
She also shared a screengrab of the message she got from the host which said she was worried about her son:
According to , Shadi explained she felt she had to disclose her gender, because she had concerns over her own safety.
Shadi added: “They should definitely have a universal nondiscrimination policy as part of their platform.
“It could be stricter than local laws, and make it so the people who are running these businesses have to comply with these policies so that the customer feels like they have recourse.”
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, says Shadi was turned away by the host in Minneapolis in July last year.
Airbnb said in a statement: '”Discrimination has no place in the Airbnb community. We have removed this host from Airbnb.”
A spokesman said: '”We are conducting a comprehensive review and examining what can be done to ensure we resolve these kinds of issues quickly and help make sure everyone is treated fairly.”
It isn’t the first time Shadi has been embroiled in controversy – her genitals were picked up as an anomaly when she was going through security checks at Orlando airport.
She was going through the female queue and ended up missing her flight due to a 40 minute delay.
