“The last thing I would want to do is hurt a member of (the transgender) community,” he said. “But people’s feelings are going to be hurt when you bring something up that is sensitive.”

An article he read Tuesday about transgender bathrooms made him think about an assault at his bar, which he said happened a year ago. That led him to post the article along with his comments.

He described the incident like this: A person in women’s clothes but with male genitalia urinated in the women’s bathroom standing up. A woman in the bathroom said something. The person assaulted the woman. Bar staff ejected the attacker. The victim did not want a police report made, he said.

Gardner said he does not believe the person in the bathroom incident is representative of trans people as a whole. But he felt something needed to be done, leading to the bathroom project.

“I’m asking transgender folk to use the unisex ... bathroom,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a big ask.”

Despite his social media comments, The Hive does not have a bathroom policy for transgender people, Gardner said, and he does not know whether the bar will establish one. If it does, it would be on the honor system.