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Trans-Siberian Orchestra hit with complaint for making women change with transgender roadie accused of making creepy shower demands
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra faces legal action from a woman crew member who says she had to shower with an 'aggressive and muscular' transgender man-to-woman roadie during the arena rock act's recent tour.
Jessica Featherston, 38, from Texas, has filed complaints with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), alleging employment discrimination. She says a trans crewmate exposed himself in the shared locker room and asked to 'get naked and have girls' shower time' with his female co-workers.
After Featherston complained to management about sexual harassment, the trans roadie started retaliating against her by leaving dirty underwear beside her bed on the tour bus, she alleges in the discrimination complaint.
The blonde lighting rigger told tour managers she was not comfortable, but they allegedly mocked her for needing 'safe showers' and she was blacklisted from future tours, including a Foo Fighters gig in Texas, she says.
The case underscores the difficulties companies face in balancing the demands of men who identify as women, and seek affirmation, and biological women, who may not want to share their bathrooms with them.
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra arena rockers face a legal complaint over sexual harassment in the workplace
Jessica Featherston, 38, a lighting rigger from Austin, Texas, says the 2023 Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour was one of her worst professional experiences
'Women have the right to private spaces,' Featherston's lawyer Gene Hamilton told The Mail.
'Women have the right to be free from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.'
The complaint was filed with the TWC this month against the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO), which is named after the Siberian railroad and has nothing to do with sex changes.
The group was founded by Paul O'Neill in 1996 and is known for its over-the-top theatrical shows and a progressive rock style akin to Pink Floyd, Yes and The Who. O'Neill died from an overdose in 2017.
Similar complaints were filed with the TWC against the New York live events company Production Resource Group (PRG), which ran the tour, and its shell company, Showpay. Neither TSO nor the two firms replied to our emails.
Featherston's allegations detail how PRG hired her to work on TSO's Winter Tour East of festive metal anthems from November 2023 onward — one of only three biological women on the touring production.
She says they were asked to share their locker room with a Californian man who had recently begun to identify as female — a decision he made after learning 'his wife had cheated on him,' the papers state.
The trans crew member, who has not been named, is three inches taller than Featherston and 'incredibly muscular and strong,' she says. He's biologically intact and 'appears male' despite 'long hair and tight-fitting clothing.'
He was asked to shower 45 minutes before the women. But at a November 17 stop in Charleston, West Virginia, he allegedly loitered in the locker room and pressured the women to take a 'group shower' with him.
'Hey girls, now that we are all here, let's all get naked and have girls' shower time,' he reportedly said.
The next day, in Greenville, South Carolina, Featherston says he was 'still showering, fully naked and exposed' in the locker room about an hour after he was meant to have finished up and left.
Featherston says she's been 'blacklisted' from future tours and a chance to work with the Foo Fighters
Dozens of people work backstage to run the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's travelling spectaculars
She says she felt 'uncomfortable' because she 'could be easily overpowered by' him.
She complained to PRG, but was allegedly mocked by the crew chief for needing 'safe showers,' she says.
Still, the company did begin to provide a second bathroom for the tour's biological women.
This, however, appears to have angered the trans crew member, who became 'verbally and physically aggressive,' the complaint says.
On two occasions, he left dirty underwear beside Featherston's bed on the tour bus.
'It felt like some territorial act intended to further intimidate me and make me feel uncomfortable,' the papers say.
Featherston says she complained about sexual harassment to PRG's labor coordinator in February.
Instead of addressing her concerns, she was allegedly 'blacklisted' from working with them again and kicked off an upcoming Foo Fighters gig, she says.
This alleged lack of action over a potential hostile work environment and claims of retaliation would constitute violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Texas laws, according to Hamilton, executive director of America First Legal, a conservative group.
The Texas Workforce Commission did not answer our requests for comment. The group's website says it can 'investigate charges of discrimination against employers' and 'fairly and accurately' make a finding.
The trans crew member has not been identified. The Mail refers to him with he/him pronouns because of the conduct laid out in Featherston's official complaints to a state government agency.
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra performs their 2014 Winter Tour at the Frank Erwin Center on December 18, 2014, in Austin, Texas
The arena rockers onstage again at the Prudential Center on December 22, 2021, in Newark, New Jersey
AFL lawyer Gene Hamilton says trans rights went too far on this arena rock tour
Hamilton, the lawyer, says the rights of trans women nowadays trample on those of biological women.
'Imagine telling a woman in the midst of the 1960s women's rights movement that, after achieving much good, the culmination of the movement would result in her daughter or granddaughter not being able to shower at work without being exposed to a male penis,' he said.
'And then being told that if you object to that biological male in the shower, you're just a bigot. Well, sadly, that appears to be where we are today in critical parts of society.'
Transgender rights groups say that trans people should be treated in accordance with the sex they identify as.
But this puts them at loggerheads with many women, who want to keep trans women and girls out of their bathrooms, sports teams and other places.
It's become a hot-button issue in America's culture wars between conservatives and liberals, even as concerns mount about the dangers of trans medicine and the safety of biological women.