A Portland bar issued a public apology Tuesday after security guards on Saturday removed a customer who identifies as transgender from the bar. The White Owl Social Club posted a message on its Instagram account, saying it was investigating why the person was removed and had fired both the security guards involved.

KATU News reported that the person who was kicked out of the bar was Alex Schwarting, who is transgender, uses she/her pronouns, and uses women’s restrooms.

On her Facebook page, Schwarting posted that she was physically dragged out of the women’s restroom at White Owl.

“I was threatened with being put into handcuffs while I was pushed down the stairs to the street,” Schwarting wrote on June 1.

Schwarting told KATU that she was searching for an open stall.

“I did what everyone else does when they’re looking for an open stall, kind of lean over, but in a place where I was standing, even if my face was against the floor, you wouldn’t have seen anything but feet and shins,” she said.

According to a post by White Owl on Monday that has since been deleted, the customer was removed from the bar because she was reportedly looking under occupied stalls. The post says that was the only reason the customer was asked to leave, and said the White Owl had a long history of running an inclusive business.

In its followup post Tuesday, White Owl apologized for its previous statement, and said the business acknowledged and regretted hurting anyone. The post said the business was committed to doing better.

“Transphobia, homophobia and other bias — whether explicit or implicit — is unacceptable both at our bar and universally,” the post said.

June is Pride Month, and businesses around Portland have been holding events in celebration of LGBTQ communities. According to its Facebook page, White Owl is hosting a Pride event June 11.

—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.