LOS ANGELES (KABC) – A curvaceous model has taken to her social media pages, accusing a Hollywood nightclub of fat shaming.
Gabriella Halikas, who posed for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue in 2021, says she and a friend lined up at The Highlight Room last week.
When the bouncer started letting in the other people in her group, Halikas said he stopped her black friend Alexa McCoy, who is also a curve model, and refused to let her pass.
“The promoter starts letting the whole group of girls in, and just as it reaches me in the front, the bouncer puts the rope in front, looks me up and down and says, ‘Yeah, not tonight,'” McCoy said.
“He looked at me and did the same thing, up and down, and just said, ‘Not tonight. Next!’” Halikas told Eyewitness News. ‘ as he let several other people pass.
Halikas says no one else in the Highlight Room would stand up for her.
Halikas has a sizeable following on social media with almost 800,000 followers between TikTok and Instagram. She and McCoy posted their experiences online and they quickly gained traction with more than a million views.
“Discrimination and fat phobia runs so deep in society,” she said. “I’m a size 14 and that’s the most average size for a woman, and yet we’re still treated like, ‘No, you can’t come in or I won’t even look at you.’ and it’s dehumanizing.”
Eyewitness News reached out to the company that owns The Highlight Room. A spokesman tells us that the bouncer in question has been removed from the door and the company “does not condone any form of discrimination”.
It adds that Highlight Room officials had scheduled a meeting with Halikas and McCoy to address the issue, but the women canceled.
Halikas says she’s unwilling to sit down with management, but says it’s more important to get her message out to as many people as possible.
“Imagine the shift across the country, between all these nightclubs and bars and restaurants that have discriminated and gotten away with it for so long.”
Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.