Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
An influencer has shared a glimpse at the most “bizarre” part about working at Hooters as a transgender woman.
TikTokker Avery, who goes by @slayverii on the platform, recently went viral when she shared with her followers what it’s like being a server at Hooters as a trans woman. “Being a trans girl working at Hooters is literally the most bizarre thing in the world,” she began her video, which has been viewed more than 625k times since it was posted on October 10.
The waiting staff at Hooters restaurants primarily consists of young women, usually referred to as “Hooters Girls,” whose revealing uniforms tend to feature orange short-shorts and a white tank top.
“The dichotomy of infiltrating the space of the straight white male gaze as a trans woman is just so insane,” she continued. “I’ve literally had customers straight up say the most transphobic rhetoric to me not knowing that I was trans, and I’m just like, ‘Okay, period.’”
“Like, what else do I say?” Avery asked her TikTok followers.
She noted that “seeing how open people are with their prejudices” at her place of work “is so insane.”
“I don’t know. I’ll never get used to it, ever ever,” Avery concluded the clip, before writing in the caption: “But I loves it.”
Many people shared their support for Avery in the comments section.
“May you always be protected. Thank you for your service,” one TikTok user wrote, while another said: “I love this for you! You’re like a spy without trying to be a spy.”
A third person commented: “Firstly, girl you’re STUNNING. Secondly, that really cannot be easy to deal with everyday. I really hope you have safe spaces to vent.”
Throughout 2024, lawmakers have introduced a record-breaking 658 bills attacking the rights of transgender people in the United States, according to independent research organization Trans Legislation Tracker. Of these bills, 45 have been passed into law, while 80 bills are being considered at the federal level. The majority of these anti-trans legislation target educational settings, such as denying students the right to name and pronoun autonomy, while others seek to prohibit gender-affirming healthcare.
Another Hooters server previously went viral on TikTok when she recounted some of the inappropriate comments customers made about her pregnancy. In the clip, TikTok user @noodledoot said she’d be “rating things people at Hooters have said to me while pregnant.”
She began by revealing that she was asked if she and the father of her child were still together, which she gave a three out of 10 rating. According to the TikToker, she was also told by a customer that “pregnant women are just so sexy” to them, a comment she noted “was not the worst but certainly not comfortable” – giving it a negative one rating.
The woman then shared one of the comments that she didn’t mind receiving: “Boy or girl?” She rated the question a 10 out of 10, calling it “appropriate and nice”. However, the TikToker ended the video on a negative note, as she revealed that she’s also been asked by customers what she’s doing “after the pregnancy” in an attempt to ask her out.
“The worst actually,” the Hooters server said, rating the comment a negative 10 out of 10.