By Derek Dellinger
Greenville, SC (WHNS) — A Greenville man said he was told to leave a store on Saturday over a dress and he’s now claiming he was discriminated against.
Stephen Bradshaw said initially went to Macy’s to get a dress for a charity event for a local Relay For Life chapter. The chapter, he said, was having a “woman-less” beauty pageant, which had men in wigs, makeup, heels and a dress for a good cause at a local bar and he wanted to take part in it.
Bradshaw said every step of the way, he communicated with others in the store in regards to why they were looking for a dress. He said customers laughed and in some cases helped him in picking out a dress.
He found his dress, which he said was worth nearly $300, but the problems started when he went to try it on.
“As I was going in to head to one of the cubicles to try the dress on, one of the sales associates told me I was not allowed to be in there because I was a guy, escorted me out of the dressing room and told me to leave the store,” Bradshaw said.
He said he tried to explain why he was there, but said those protests fell on deaf ears.
“She said she didn’t care,” Bradshaw said. “She didn’t go get a manager or anything like that to try and remedy the situation. I wasn’t offered another dressing room or anything, I was just told to leave.”
Bradshaw said he felt singled out and embarrassed as a result of the incident, and he’s claiming he was discriminated against.
In a statement from Macy’s, company spokesperson Melissa Goff said:
“We apologize if we caused the customer any inconvenience or distress. That certainly was not the intention. Our fitting rooms are available for customers without regard to gender, but we generally ask that the fitting rooms be used solely by the person trying-on the merchandise. In this case, the woman was carrying the prom dress and our associate assumed it was she who was trying it on. Our associate did ask the man not to go into the fitting room with her, which is why we provide a waiting area immediately outside of the fitting room. The couple did not explain that the dress was for him, nor describe the charity event to which it would be worn. We seek to accommodate the individual needs of every customer and we are disappointed to have fallen short in this instance.”
Bradshaw disputes the claims that he didn’t inform any associates.
In an interview with FOX Carolina, Bradshaw said that they informed another associate of why they were there when they initially entered the store, and communicated with customers throughout about why they were there and what they were doing, in an effort to make no one feel uncomfortable.
“I was on the up and up with everybody and told them what it was for,” he said.
Bradshaw said that Macy’s has lost him as a customer and is now looking at pursuing legal action over what happened.
“Had I been a woman going in there trying on a dress, nothing would’ve been said,” he said.
Bradshaw said he was able to participate in the charity event after getting a dress from another store at Haywood Mall who was more than willing to accommodate him.