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Hanly recalled what appeared outside the restroom as she approached:
“As I was just outside of the washroom… trying to mentally prepare to just go in there, the bartender came up and taped up a little handwritten paper sign outside the door that said ‘ladies only,’ and said, ‘Hey, we’re very strict about this.’”
Rougaroux is a five-piece Vancouver post-punk band with multiple transgender members. The Sportsman’s Club has also hosted queer and transgender performers, including drag acts, so this wasn’t exactly an undercover queer punk operation sneaking through the door.
Hanly posted about the band on Instagram below:
Hanly noted that Rougaroux isn’t particularly subtle about who they are:
“It’s pretty clear that we are talking about queerness and that that is kind of like a big part of our identity as a band.”
Hanly did not enter the restroom. When bandmate and fiancé George Finley learned what happened, he removed the handwritten sign and confronted the bartender.
Finley recalled putting the obvious question directly to the bartender:
“The words I used were, ‘Why, when my female fiancée is going to use the washroom, did you feel the need to walk in front of her and put this sign up?’”
Apparently, even going to the bathroom now requires a customer-service negotiation. Hanly said the exchange continued, and the bartender invoked both management’s position and her own.
Hanly recalled the explanation that followed:
“Well, this is the opinion of the management of the bar, and frankly, it’s my opinion too. We just don’t want men in our women’s washroom.”
That was enough for Rougaroux. Four trans women were traveling with the group, including Hanly, while Finley is a trans man. The band packed its gear, canceled the performance, and left.
Hanly shared more about the encounter in a video posted to Instagram:
The Sportsman’s Club didn’t reverse course afterward. CBC News spoke with an unnamed manager who said the venue tries to accommodate transgender people, but that does not include access to its gendered washrooms. The venue has no gender-neutral facilities and no plans to change its policy.
The venue disputed aspects of Rougaroux’s account, but its bathroom policy wasn’t in dispute.
Then came the fallout.
Absolute Losers and Coyote canceled scheduled performances, while Sweet Gale said it would no longer play at the Sportsman’s Club. Music P.E.I. announced it would not present programming in spaces with policies or practices that deny transgender people access to their basic human rights.
And the backlash wasn’t confined to artists and industry groups:
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Losing performers is one thing. Running headfirst into Prince Edward Island’s human rights protections is another.
The P.E.I. Human Rights Commission says service providers must allow people to use washrooms reflecting their gender identity.
The commission spelled out what those obligations require:
“It is important that all service providers are aware of their obligations under the Human Rights Act, which include allowing staff and patrons access to washrooms which reflect the person’s gender identity.”
For American readers, the controversy hits close to home. More than 800 anti-trans bills have been introduced across more than 40 states in 2026, including measures targeting public accommodations. Yet a national survey commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that 85% of U.S. adults support equal rights and protections for transgender Americans.
Different country, different laws, same exhausting fight over something remarkably ordinary: Hanly needed to use the bathroom.
For Hanly, what happened carried a much heavier cost:
“I don’t ever want to feel this shame that I have felt about who I am and about the journey that I have been on and the struggles that have gotten me to this point.”
Rougaroux refused to play along. Packing up your gear and walking out on transphobia?
That sounds pretty punk rock to us.
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