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The New Paper </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="15">
Rejected at club... for dressing as a woman <!-- TITLE : end--> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" height="15">
By Lediati Tan
A MAN dressed as a woman turns up at your club on ladies' night. What would you do if you are the club manager? Instead of judging the person by what he wears, one nightspot manager twice turned him away, earning the ire of student Marla Bendini, 23. Mr Bendini, a transgender person, who was evicted from China One at Clarke Quay on Thursday night, later blogged about the experience.
His real name is Bendini Junior Ong and he is a student at The Nanyang Technological University's School of Art, Design and Media. Mr Bendini told The New Paper that he was at China One - an Oriental-themed bar and lounge - to support three female friends from Acro Polates pole dancing school who had been invited to perform at the club's ladies' night. He was the only transgender person in a group of seven or eight people who were there to lend their support to the performers.
All went well and he was having a good time until just before the second half of the performance. "(A) bouncer came up to me and said the manager wanted to speak to me and wanted me to follow him outside the club. I obliged," he wrote on the blog. When the manager did not turn up, Mr Bendini went back into the bar, but a bouncer tried to stop him from entering.
But when he went inside, friends told Mr Bendini that "the club management wanted me to leave and I am not welcome in the club". Even though his friends tried to explain that they were all part of the group invited to perform and were there to support the performers, the bouncers were adamant that he leave. "I told them that I do not want to create any trouble and I will wait outside," he said.
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