A transgender college student stated, “I am here to break the law” before entering a women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol and being led out in handcuffs by police.
Civil rights attorneys say Marcy Rheintgen’s arrest last month is the first they know of for violating transgender bathroom restrictions enacted by numerous state legislatures across the country.
Capitol police had been alerted and were waiting for Rheintgen, 20, when she entered the building in Tallahassee on March 19.
They told her she’d get a trespass warning if she went into the women’s restroom to wash her hands and pray the rosary, but she was arrested after refusing to leave, according to an arrest affidavit.
Rheintgen faces a misdemeanor trespassing charge punishable by up to 60 days in jail and is scheduled to appear in court in May.
“I wanted people to see the absurdity of this law in practice,” Rheintgen told The Associated Press. “If I am a criminal, it will be extremely difficult for me to live a normal life simply because I washed my hands. Like, that is insane.”
At least 14 states have passed legislation prohibiting transgender women from using women’s restrooms at public schools and, in some cases, other government facilities. Only two states, Florida and Utah, have criminalized the act.
Rheintgen’s arrest in Florida is the first that American Civil Liberties Union attorneys are aware of in any state where a criminal ban exists, according to senior staff attorney Jon Davidson.
Rheintgen was in town visiting her grandparents when she decided to write a letter to each of Florida’s 160 state legislators informing them of her intention to use a public restroom contrary to her assigned sex at birth.
The Illinois resident stated that her act of civil disobedience was motivated by her outrage at seeing a place she loves and visits frequently become hostile to transgender people.
“I know you know in your heart that this law is wrong and unjust,” she stated in her letter to lawmakers. “I know you know in your heart that transgender people are human, and you can’t just arrest us. I am sure you are aware that I have dignity. That is why I am confident that you will not arrest me.
Her arrest comes as Republican-led states grapple with how to enforce restroom restrictions. Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, and North Dakota laws do not specify an enforcement mechanism, and those that do rely heavily on private individuals to report violations.
In Utah, activists flooded a tip line set up to alert state officials to potential violations of the state’s bathroom law with thousands of hoax reports, attempting to shield transgender residents and their allies from legitimate complaints that could lead to an investigation.
Supporters of the laws argue that they are necessary to protect women and girls in private single-sex spaces.
Opponents, including Nadine Smith, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida, argue that granting people the authority to police other people’s bodies in bathrooms creates dangerous situations for everyone.
“The arrest of Marcy Rheintgen is not about safety,” Smith informed the crowd. “It is about cruelty, humiliation, and the deliberate undermining of human dignity.
Transgender people have been using restrooms that match their gender for generations without incident. What has changed isn’t their presence, but a slew of laws aimed at intimidating them out of public life.
If Rheintgen is convicted, she fears she will be imprisoned alongside men, forced to cut her long hair, and temporarily barred from using gender-affirming hormones.
“People are telling me it’s a legal test, like this is the first case that’s being brought,” she told me. “This is how they test the law.
But I did not do this to test the law. I did it because I was upset. I have no expectations for what will happen because this has never been prosecuted before. I am horrified and scared.”
