Police Called on Trans Men Using Women's Restroom As Required By Kansas Law

“As a trans man, I have the immense privilege of blending in. But these laws force me to choose between safety and obeying the law.”

kscompliancecrew.org

Some of the activists who spoke to Erin in the Morning did so on the condition that their last name not be published, citing safety and privacy concerns.

On August 8, police arrived on the scene of Long Branch Lagoon Water Park in Dodge City, Kansas, to the sight of three self-described “bearded, burly men” who had been in the women’s bathroom and changing area. The manager of the municipally run property allegedly screamed and rushed children out the door.

The men knew this was likely. They didn’t agitate any of the women; they didn’t remove their clothes or make crass comments. They simply used the gendered spaces that the state of Kansas requires them to use by law, because these men are transgender.

“Supporters of SB244, including Attorney General Kris Kobach and Senate Majority Leader Ty Masterson, billed it as a way to keep men out of women’s spaces; it clearly requires some men to enter women’s spaces,” a press release sent to news outlets reads. So, these men took action—using malicious compliance to prove their point.

“Segregating people by suspected genitalia does nothing to improve public safety; it does quite the opposite by opening Kansans up to sexual harassment and discrimination. At no point should anyone be asking anyone else what genitals they have in public.”

The men, dressed in yellow “Compliance Crew” shirts, were part of a small group of trans-masculine Kansans who used the women’s room at facilities across the state that day in a coordinated action. They were also spotted at a zoo, a library, a museum, and other parks. They were in Emporia, Great Bend, Garden City, and Dodge City. At the library, at least one patron complained; at other places, the men used the bathroom and received dirty looks, and simply left the space without confrontation.

But at Long Branch Lagoon, members of the Kansas Compliance Crew resorted to having to describe their genitals to police in order to resolve the matter and avoid arrest.

“The men had a discussion with the manager and police and explained the situation, including uncomfortable descriptions of their bodies,” the press release said. Furthermore, both the manager and the police reportedly said “they had never heard of SB244 nor been notified by any government entity of its passage.”

“I could easily continue using the men’s restroom under the radar,” said Ray Vieux, who participated as one of the demonstrators.

SB244 passed in February. It enshrined biological, immutable, and unscientific sex definitions into state law, established bathroom bans in many government owned buildings, and purported to invalidate driver’s licenses of trans Kansans who had changed their gender marker.

Since the bill passed, Vieux continued to use the men’s room in public spaces “enough to land me in jail several times over if I had been reported,” he said.

“As a trans man, I have the immense privilege of blending in. But these laws force me to choose between safety and obeying the law,” Vieux told Erin in the Morning. “I want people outside of Kansas to understand that many of us don’t want to leave, no matter how bad it gets. But every time I drive with an ‘F’ on my license or use the restroom, I fear for my safety.”

Charles, a 52-year-old ranch hand, said he participated to show the impacts of the bill. “It was pushed as a way to keep men out of women’s spaces,” he said. “As trans men and transmasculine people, we have a really unique opportunity to demonstrate, with action, visually, just exactly how wrong that was. That the law does not actually do what it was advertised to do.”

The group emphasized that they believed it was important for all trans people, but that trans women, in particular, were bearing the brunt of this anti-trans rhetoric about so-called “men” in women’s spaces. They’re not the only ones taking similar action; Samantha Boucher, a trans activist in Topeka, used the restroom at the statehouse to protest the bill, and law enforcement declined to intervene. Police seemed to selectively enforce a similar ban during an action in Texas.

Meanwhile, in states like Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Louisiana, transgender and cisgender people alike have been accosted by law enforcement and/or civilians determined to enforce bathroom sex segregation, even in places where no such law applies. It has resulted in multiple arrests and physical altercations.

In February, the ACLU of Kansas sued the state on behalf of two transgender men who had their driver’s licenses invalidated due to SB244, which a senior attorney for the organization called “a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”

In the aftermath of Saturday’s action, Theodore, another demonstrator who is a case manager and transgender man in his 30s, said he was surprised by the sheer level of vitriolic backlash. But for the most part, in his experience, it wasn’t in the bathrooms. It was on social media.

When news broke of their small but mighty protest, there were threats of rape and violence, of people calling them pedophiles, of people spewing anti-trans conspiracies and hatred.

“I’m just a boring dad,” Theodore said, looking at some of those comments. “I’m out here trying to keep my kids safe, too.”