A Judge has tossed out the case against Marcy Rheintgen, 20, who was arrested in March for washing her hands in a woman's restroom at the Florida State House. The judge dismissed the case on June 20, after prosecutors failed to meet filing deadlines.
Nineteen states have laws banning transgender people from using the restroom, but only two, Florida and Utah, have criminal penalties. Rheintgen is the first and the only person, to date, to be arrested and charged under those laws.
Rheintgen said that she intentionally broke the law because she felt it was disgusting and vile. She mailed letters to law enforcement and lawmakers telling them where and when she would be washing her hands.
When officers told her to leave the restroom, she refused, so they escorted her to a holding room at the state capitol where they offered to give her a notice to appear. But when Rheintgen "refused to lick their boots," she was arrested and charged with trespassing, which carries a possible eleven-month sentence.
Leon County court records show that a judge granted her defense attorney's motion to dismiss the misdemeanor trespassing charge against her on June 20 after state prosecutors failed to file charging documents and other information in her case within a 90-day timeline.
Dear friends, Nancy Pelosi has the ability to end workplace discrimination of LGBTQ people, but she is refusing to act. It's time to let her know that we won't wait any longer. As you read this, GetEqual.org members are entering Pelosi's offices in DC and her district office in San Francisco. They won't leave until Speaker Pelosi commits to bring the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to the floor for a vote this month - or until they are arrested.
A majority of Congress supports this bill to stop job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but promises to bring it to a vote last fall were broken several times. ENDA has been jammed up in committee for six months, awaiting a signal from Speaker Pelosi that hasn't come. We have visited, called and written Congress by the thousands, and have been ignored. The usual lobbying tactics do not appear to be having the needed effect. Now the midterm elections are coming, and Speaker Pelosi has promised Congress no more "controversial" votes. The "controversy" is whether LGBT Americans have the right to a job. This "tyrrany of the majority" must stop. Nonviolent direct action is relevant and needed and it's happening now. ENDA is important because studies show that LGBT workers endure high unemployment, underemployment and harassment. We have to lie and hide in order to get and keep a job. In 30 states across America, there is no law against firing someone based on his or her sexual orientation, and the same is true in 38 states for gender identity. Ask Police Officer Michael Carney of Springfield, Massachusetts, who testified before Congress about the harassment he had to endure in the station house before being fired. Ask Vandy Beth Glenn of Atlanta, Georgia, who told Congress about being fired from her job as a proofreader with the Georgia legislature because she is transgender. This has gone on long enough. If you want more information on Speaker Pelosi's position, and the demand that she move ENDA forward, you can find it here.
Will you join with us in demanding that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people be protected from job discrimination?
