Trans councilwoman confronts store owner who put up bigoted sign, tells him 'transwomen are women'

A transgender councilwoman recently confronted a Washington Star Wars memorabilia store owner over an extremely transphobic sign displayed in the shop window. Tiesa Meri Meskis, a councilwoman in the town of Aberdeen, stormed into the Sucher & Sons Star Wars Shop last week after she heard about a sign in his window that said "If you are born with a d**k you are not a chick." Attributing the offensive rhyme to Dr. Seuss, Don Sucher — the store owner — wrote that it was one of his books that was finally being released after "cancel culture banned his early books."

Describing her heated exchange with Sucher in a Facebook post, Meskis wrote: "There is a store downtown that I used to think was pretty cool, even though the owner had some wild beliefs. But, today I learned that he put up a sign that was a direct attack on me personally as well as every trans member of our community. So, I went down to just see if this was real and if so I was going to grab a picture and leave. The business owner had other plans which are in the videos. We have the right to be who we are and no one gets to belittle us, ever!"

Meskis also shared two videos documenting the now-viral confrontation which showed Sucher doubling down on his bigotry. "I'm telling you right now as a transwoman, that transwomen are women," she tells the store owner. "Well, I'm telling you as a man, that's bullsh*t," he exclaimed in response. "It's total bullsh*t! You know what, nobody confronts your a**. That's the problem... Do you know how many people you've embarrassed in city hall? They have to tolerate that sh*t." Even when Meskis told Sucher that she's going to make sure "everybody knows" about his transphobic sentiments, the store owner appeared absolutely unfazed.

"You do that. You know why? Every time some bullsh*t like this happens, my sales go up because people are wanting this," he claimed. "You are fu**ing nuts! You are not a woman, you don't look like a woman, you don't act like a woman. You are fu**ed in the head! What's wrong with you?!" The argument soon spilled out onto the streets when Sucher asked Meskis to leave. The two continued yelling at each other outside the store with Meskis repeatedly saying, "Transwomen are women."

Speaking to King 5 after the incident, Meskis — who said she is in the process of transitioning — said: "What he wrote there was so demeaning and so dismissive of who I am, who any trans woman is." She added that while she knows Sucher has the right to say what he wants, she wanted to tell him to his face that the sign he put up was hurtful. "We are people. We are who we are and we all want to be accepted in our community," said Meskis. Despite being severely criticized online for his actions, Sucher has refused to budge from his stance.

"I don't care what they do, but don't come in here and complain to me about stuff. I have free speech," he said in an interview on Thursday. He claimed that he has received a number of supportive phone calls after the incident went viral, praising him for how he handled the confrontation and the sign behind the incident. "Everybody's loved it. Everybody's taken pictures of it," said Sucher. "I don't give a [expletive] about feelings anymore," he added. "I went to Vietnam to fight for all this [expletive]. Do you think I care about some [expletive] feeling? Absolutely not!" Although both Meskis and Sucher planned to hold protests outside of the store over the weekend, the demonstrations have since been canceled.