Trans man says bathroom bans force daily decision of ‘jail or attack’
A number of ‘bathroom bills’ are being discussed in the US. (Getty)
A trans man from Idaho has given a devastating breakdown of their life under a potential “bathroom bill” that is up for vote.
The bill would make it a crime for trans people to enter public bathrooms which align with their gender identity. A first offence could carry up to one year in prison, while a second offence in five years could bring five years.
Nixon Matthews spoke at a hearing on House Bill 752, telling legislators: “I want to walk through what this looks like for me.”
They said, in the clip also shared to Instagram: “Say, one of the men here walks into the men’s bathroom, and you see me walk into a stall, and you know I’m trans. And since you’re all law-abiding citizens, you’re going to call 911. You’re going to say, ‘Hello 911? There’s a trans person in the bathroom. They’re peeing right now, I’m scared. Please come and arrest them.'”
To avoid being arrested, Matthews said they would have to instead use the women’s bathroom.
But they continued: “Say I happen to walk behind a woman, and her husband sees someone who looks like me following his wife into the bathroom, what do you think happens next? Maybe the cops get called. But more likely, that man is going to follow me into the bathroom, confront me, and even assault me.”
Matthews went on: “So every single day, when I’m out in public, I have to decide: do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked?”
In their accompanying Instagram caption, Matthews noted that penalty for a first offence of up to one year in county jail is a heavier sentence than for a DUI (six months), assault (three months) or battery (six months).
Idaho state Representative Chris Mathias said, according to the Idaho Capital Sun: “The truth of the matter is — and I know a lot of people don’t want to say it, but — forcing people who don’t look like the sex that they were born with, or transgender folks, forcing them to use other people’s bathrooms is going to put a lot of people in danger.”
The bill passed on Monday (16 March) and is now headed to the Idaho Senate.
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