Transgender Woman Arrested After Using Bathroom at Florida State Capitol
A transgender woman was arrested at the Florida State Capitol last month after she used a bathroom there to protest a state law that blocks transgender people from using a rest room that aligns with their gender identity.
The transgender woman, Marcy Rheintgen, 20, said on Sunday that she had intentionally broken the law. Civil rights experts said that this was the first known case of someone being arrested for challenging a law that bans transgender people from using bathrooms in government buildings that do not align with their gender at birth.
Ms. Rheintgen said she had been feeling emotional about what she described as dehumanizing language used by elected officials to talk about transgender people when the idea came to her: 'What if I just broke the law because the law is so stupid?'
Ms. Rheintgen said that she sent 160 letters to state representatives, the attorney general and governor to tell them when she would use the bathroom and asked that she not be arrested.
She arrived at the bathroom on the second floor of the House office building of the Capitol in Tallahassee on March 19.
Two police officers spoke to Ms. Rheintgen outside the bathroom and told her that she would be given a trespass warning if she entered, according to an arrest report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The police had seen a copy of Ms. Rheintgen's letter, said the report, which used male pronouns to refer to her.
According to the report, Ms. Rheintgen told the officers, 'I am here to break the law,' and entered the bathroom. She said in an interview with The New York Times that she spent probably 30 seconds to a minute inside.
'I was originally intending to pray the rosary, but I didn't have enough time,' she said. 'I was just washing my hands, and they told me to leave.'
An officer followed inside and said that Ms. Rheintgen would be subject to arrest if she did not leave, and Ms. Rheintgen said, 'OK,' according to the report.
She said she spent about 24 hours in jail. If convicted, she faces up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. Her arraignment is scheduled for May, according to court records.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said in an email on Monday that Ms. Rheintgen was arrested for 'trespass on property after warning,' not specifically for violating the state's bathroom law, the 'Safety in Private Spaces Act.'
The law, which went into effect on July 1, 2023, applies to bathrooms and changing facilities in government buildings, including schools, prisons and libraries.
Representatives for Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the bathroom law, and the state attorney general, James Uthmeier, did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Since 2022, five states have passed a transgender bathroom law for all government buildings, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
In two of those states, Florida and Utah, violations can result in criminal penalties. In the three other states, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming, the laws have civil penalties.
A district court judge in Montana blocked the state's law on April 2 after a legal challenge by the A.C.L.U.
Gillian Branstetter, a communications strategist with the A.C.L.U., said that, to the best of the organization's knowledge, Ms. Rheintgen's arrest was the first on record under those five state laws.
There are 14 other states that ban transgender people from choosing their own bathroom, but those apply only to some — not all — government buildings and schools.
Nadine Smith, the executive director of Equality Florida, a L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights organization, said in a statement that Ms. Rheintgen's arrest was a 'deliberate erosion of human dignity.'
'Transgender people have been using restrooms aligned with their gender for generations without incident,' Ms. Smith said. 'What's changed is not their presence — it's a wave of laws designed to intimidate them out of public life.'
Ms. Rheintgen is from Illinois but she said she visits Florida every year to see family and was on such a trip when she engaged in her protest. She said that she did not see herself as an activist before, but she felt like she had to be one now.
In her letter to Florida representatives, she included a photo of herself because, without it, she did not think officials would be able to tell that she was the person breaking the law.
'I know that you know in your heart that transgender people are human too, and that you can't arrest us away,' Ms. Rheintgen wrote.
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