The Oxford, Alabama, city council unanimously approved an ordinance on Tuesday that bars trans people from using any public bathroom that doesn’t match the sex indicated on their birth certificate.
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Target’s decision to allow transgender customers and employees to use the bathroom and fitting room of their choice is now illegal in Oxford, Alabama.
Each violation will result in a $500 fine or up to six months in jail. Click one of the links below to download, or search WIAT.com from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. The law applies within both the city’s limits and police jurisdiction.
“I am not aware of another law or ordinance that explicitly targets transgender people and attaches a criminal penalty to the act of using a restroom that matches a person’s gender identity where that gender identity is not reflected on a person’s birth certificate”, said Strangio.
“The policy creates an unsafe environment”, said Steven Waits, council president.
Oxford’s law is one more example in Southern and Midwestern states to enact laws restricting the rights and liberties of transgender people as backlash to growing trans visibility in the nation.
With that being said, Police Chief Bill Partridge stated via WLOX, “the law, which makes the offense a misdemeanor, would be enforced like any other city ordinance, such as noise violations or public indecency”. A person would have to call police to complain, when police arrive the officer would have to witness the crime. “Then we take down the person’s information, and the person who reported it has to sign out a warrant”. Waits said he’s received an “overwhelming” number of complaints from city residents regarding the company’s policy since it was announced.
“It seems that this kind of law comes pretty close to just criminalizing the status of being transgender, which simply can not be squared with Constitution or, I would hope, our basic moral decency as human beings”, Strangio told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday.
He also added they were not seeking to be discriminatory, but were rather choosing to protect the majority of people who would otherwise be negatively impacted by Target’s new policy.
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“Charlotte Observer. 26 March 2016”.
