Summary
Marcy Rheintgen, a 20-year-old transgender college student, was arrested at the Florida State Capitol after intentionally entering a women’s restroom in protest of the state’s transgender bathroom law.
Civil rights lawyers say it is the first known arrest under such laws in any U.S. state.
Rheintgen faces a misdemeanor trespassing charge and could face up to 60 days in jail.
Florida is one of only two states to criminalize such acts.
These laws are stupid and pointless, full stop. There are already plenty of existing laws against doing the sort of things that would actually be harmful. Just having a law to stop someone from entering the “wrong” restroom is stupid because there are plenty of reasons why someone might need to do so, even if they aren’t trans or intersex or whatever. Just entering a restroom is not harmful to anyone. And as you point out, this law doesn’t stop them if they have the intent to do harm. All it serves to do is give the people in authority an easy way to punish a group they’ve identified as “bad”.