Restaurant's Bathroom Sign Vaguely Threatening to Transgender Customers

You wouldn't expect an all-you-can-eat catfish restaurant owned by an 82-year-old man to be the most progressive, enlightened place in the world and—surprise!—it's not. The Steak and Catfish Barn in Oklahoma City is living up to the expectations you'd have for a place with 'barn' in it's name, posting a bathroom sign that many interpret as a threat to transgender individuals.

Visitors to the Steak and Catfish Barn are greeted by a vaguely menacing, haphazardly punctuated sign that is Scotch-taped to the front door. "We do not have a transgender bathroom," it says in ALL CAPS. "So don't be caught in the wrong one. Thank You, Bob."

The sign was posted 10 months ago but—possibly because advocacy groups don't often meet over a plate of catfish strips—it has only recently come to the attention of Freedom Oklahoma.

"You've got this sign implying a threat of potential violence against somebody for going to pee. That's not the Oklahoma standard. That's not what it means to be American. That's just wrong," Troy Stevenson, the executive director for Freedom Oklahoma, told KFOR.

The Bob whose name is at the bottom is 82-year-old owner Bob Warner, who insists that the sign isn't a threat. He insists that it's more of a warning that transgender customers should pee at their own risk.

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"I got to thinking, 'I have a lot of redneck guys that weigh 250 pounds or more, and if somebody that was dressed like a man when their wife was in there or their little girl, I would not have a restaurant left," Warner told NonDoc. "Because that guy would go in there and tear my restaurant to pieces."

Oh, Bob. That's not how being transgender works. That's not how any of this works. (If a transgender woman happened to be in the restroom with Critter the Redneck's wife and daughter, she would be dressed as a woman. Also, perhaps 250-pound Critter should focus less on what's happening in the bathroom and more on what he's shoveling into his mouth).

Warner said that he only had two bathrooms and couldn't afford to add a third, transgender option. (BOB, STOP).

He insisted that, even though he was a conservative, he wasn't anti-trans ("They don't bother me," he said). That hasn't stopped advocates and allies of the transgender community from speaking out against the restaurant, filling its Facebook page with negative comments. "Spoiler alert: their secret sauce is stupidity," one of the many new one-star reviews says.

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Despite the clumsy stupidity of Warner's sign, the Steak and Catfish Barn is far from being the most bigoted restaurant in Oklahoma. That eternal honor goes to Gary's Chicaros in Enid, a charming establishment whose owner sells t-shirts describing the eatery as a "N***** Free Zone", and who proudly told KFOR that he "really [doesn't] want any gays around."

As for Warner, he says that transgender customers are still welcome to relieve themselves in his restrooms, as long as they are "dressed appropriately." He's also unconcerned about the exposure the restaurant has received, and even the angry or irate phone calls his sign has generated. "God will take care of me," he told NonDoc.

The Steak and Catfish Barn repeatedly hung up on MUNCHIES when we called for a comment (and to inquire what Warner considers 'appropriate' attire).