Trans-Siberian Orchestra is being sued for forcing women to change clothes while a transgender roadie is said to have made creepy shower demands

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is being sued by a female crew member who says she was forced to shower with an “aggressive and muscular” transgender roadie who had transitioned into a woman during the arena rock band's recent tour.

Jessica Featherston, 38, of Texas, has filed a complaint of employment discrimination with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). She says a A transsexual crewmate exposed himself in the shared dressing room and asked to “strip naked and have a girls’ shower” with his colleagues.

After Featherston complained to management about sexual harassment, the transgender roadie began to retaliate against her by leaving dirty underwear next to her bed on the tour bus, she claims in the discrimination suit.

The blonde lighting technician told tour managers she didn't feel comfortable doing it, but they allegedly mocked her for needing “safe showers” and she was banned from future tours, including a Foo Fighters show in Texas, she says.

The case highlights the difficulties companies face in balancing the demands of men who identify as women and seek validation with biological women who may not want to share their bathroom with them.

A lawsuit is filed against the arena rockers of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for sexual harassment in the workplace

Jessica Featherston, 38, a lighting technician from Austin, Texas, says the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's 2023 tour was one of her worst professional experiences

“Women have a right to privacy,” 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 railway and has nothing to do with gender reassignment surgery.

The group was founded in 1996 by Paul O'Neill and is known for their over-the-top theatrical shows and a progressive rock style reminiscent of Pink Floyd, Yes and The Who. O'Neill died of an overdose in 2017.

Similar complaints were filed with TWC against New York-based live event company Production Resource Group (PRG), which organized the tour, and its shell company Showpay. Neither TSO nor the two companies responded to our emails.

Featherston's allegations detail how PRG hired her to take part in TSO's winter tour “East” of festive metal anthems starting in November 2023 – as one of only three biological women in the tour production.

She says she was asked to share the dressing room with a man from California who recently identified as a woman – a decision he made after learning “that his wife had cheated on him,” the newspapers say.

The transgender crew member, whose name was not disclosed, is three inches taller than Featherston and “incredibly muscular and strong,” she says. He is biologically intact and “looks male” despite “long hair and tight-fitting clothing.”

He was asked to shower 45 minutes before the women, but during a stop on November 17 in Charleston, West Virginia, he allegedly hung around the dressing room and pressured the women to take a “group shower” with him.

“Hey girls, now that we're all here, let's all get naked and have a girl's shower,” he is said to have said.

The next day, in Greenville, South Carolina, Featherston said he was “still showering, completely naked and exposed” in the locker room, about an hour after he was supposed to finish and leave.

Featherston says she has been excluded from future tours and a chance to work with the Foo Fighters

Dozens of people work backstage to organize the spectacular traveling performances of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

She says she felt “uncomfortable” because she “could easily be overwhelmed by him.”

She complained to PRG but was allegedly ridiculed by the crew chief for demanding “safe showers,” she says.

Nevertheless, the company began providing a second bathroom to the biological women on the tour.

This, however, appeared to have angered the transgender crew member, who became “verbally and physically aggressive,” the complaint states.

Twice he left dirty underwear next to Featherston's bed on the tour bus.

“It felt like a territorial action designed to intimidate me even more and make me feel uncomfortable,” the newspapers said.

Featherston said she complained about sexual harassment to PRG's labor coordinator in February.

Instead of addressing her concerns, she was allegedly placed on a “blacklist” that prevented her from working with them again and was banned from an upcoming Foo Fighters performance, she says.

This alleged inaction regarding a potentially hostile work environment and allegations of retaliation would violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Texas law, said Hamilton, executive director of the conservative group America First Legal.

The Texas Workforce Commission did not respond to our request for comment. The group's website says it can “investigate allegations of discrimination against employers” and make “fair and accurate” determinations.

The transgender crew member was not identified. The email refers to him using he/him pronouns because of the behavior Featherston described in official complaints to a state agency.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra performs its 2014 Winter Tour on December 18, 2014 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

The arena rockers will be back on stage at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on December 22, 2021

AFL lawyer Gene Hamilton says trans rights went too far on this arena rock tour

Lawyer Hamilton says that today the rights of trans women are being overshadowed by those of biological women.

“Imagine telling a woman in the midst of the women's rights movement of the 1960s that the culmination of this movement, which had brought many good achievements, would end with her daughter or granddaughter no longer being able to shower at work without being exposed to a male penis,” he said.

“And then you're told you're a bigot if you have something against the biological man in the shower. Well, unfortunately, it seems that we've reached that point in key parts of society today.”

Transgender rights groups say transgender people should be treated according to the gender they identify with.

However, this puts them in conflict with many women who want to keep trans women and girls out of their bathrooms, sports clubs and other places.

It has become a hot topic in the American culture war between conservatives and liberals, even as concerns grow about the dangers of trans medicine and the safety of biological women.