Florida Cops Arrest Transgender Woman for Using Women's Bathroom

A transgender woman was arrested last month for refusing to leave the women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol. Marcy Rheintgen, a 20-year-old college student, said she acted intentionally to challenge Florida’s antitrans bathroom law.  

Passed in 2023, the Safety in Private Spaces Act criminalizes an individual for refusing to leave a restroom or changing area assigned to the opposite sex when asked to by a government employee. Currently, 13 states have passed policies relating to transgender bathroom use, but only two states, Florida and Utah, have opted to impose criminal penalties. Rheintgen told the Associated Press that she “wanted people to see the absurdity” of Florida’s transgender bathroom use restrictions under the law. 

After sending 160 letters to state representatives, the attorney general, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis asking that she not be arrested for using the restroom corresponding with her gender identity, Rheintgen arrived at the women’s restroom at the House office building in Tallahassee on March 19. Police officers, who had been tipped off to Rheintgen’s plan, were waiting for her. 

According to the arrest report, officers gave Rheintgen a trespass warning, to which she replied, “I am here to break the law,” and entered the restroom. Officers followed her inside and warned her that if she did not leave the women’s restroom, she would be arrested. Rheintgen told The New York Times that she was in the bathroom for “probably 30 seconds to a minute” before being detained. 

Since its passage, Florida’s bathroom law has been criticized not only for its impact on trans and nonbinary individuals’ privacy but also for being poorly written. The law imposes complex and confusing regulations on an individual’s use of bathrooms and changing facilities in buildings owned or leased by Florida’s state and local governments. 

While the law impacts the bathrooms in all legislative offices, schools, libraries, jails, and state parks, certain airports and sports arenas could also qualify. The law also includes several exemptions, including for unisex restrooms, using the restroom for government or maintenance purposes, accompanying a child or disabled person, and if the “appropriate designated restroom or changing facility is out of order.”

Because of its breadth and vagueness, the law’s impact goes beyond transgendered individuals and puts everyone on notice that their mundane use of facilities could invite action from law enforcement. 

The law’s cumbersome criteria could be why officers in Rheintgen’s case opted to arrest her under a completely separate—and simpler—crime: trespass on property after warning. Without being either arrested or charged under the Safety in Private Spaces Act, Rheintgen won’t be able to challenge the law directly in court. 

Rheintgan now faces a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days of imprisonment and a $500 fine.

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