A group of transgender and nonbinary people on Friday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new Florida law requiring people to use public restrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth, asking a judge to block enforcement before an upcoming march in Orlando.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal Middle District of Florida, alleged that the restroom restrictions are discriminatory and violate free-speech rights.
The case is the latest in a series of challenges to laws and rules approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and the Legislature targeting trans people and the LGBTQ community.
Friday’s challenge centers on a law (HB 1521), passed this spring, that applies to the use of restrooms and changing facilities at schools and “public buildings,” such as airports, state and local-government buildings, prisons and jails. People who use restrooms or changing facilities that differ from their sex assigned at birth and refuse to leave when asked to do so could be charged with criminal trespass.
“This view of sex and gender causes irreparable harm for transgender, gender nonconforming and certain intersex people (TGNCI people) because this community’s identities may differ from their sex assigned at birth. When TGNCI people walk, talk, dress or use an affirming restroom, they communicate their gender identity in a way that society can understand,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote.
The law “would ban this conduct and perspective and force TGNCI people to adopt the state’s view of sex and gender instead,” they argued.
According to the lawsuit, an estimated 1,000 people are expected Oct. 7 to attend the National March to Protect Trans Youth in downtown Orlando.
“Plaintiffs have sincere concerns about their ability to exercise their protest and expressive conduct rights as they traverse the state of Florida from Oct. 2, 2023, through October 8, 2023. Some Plaintiffs plan to use a restroom that aligns with their gender, which exposes them to arrest. Others wish to avoid that risk and plan to use non-affirming restrooms. Some will forgo multi-stall public restrooms altogether due to fear and discomfort,” said the lawsuit, which names numerous law-enforcement officials in the Orlando area as defendants.
Other defendants include Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue; Thomas Draper, chief of operations for the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which oversees Orlando International Airport; and Alex Martins, chairman of the University of Central Florida Board of Trustees. March organizers plan to spend several hours on the university’s campus.
The lawsuit seeks to protect participants in the march and other trans and nonbinary people, said Zee Scout, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents the plaintiffs.
“It is farcical to believe that any trans, nonconforming, intersex person or queer person would feel safe right now, not only in the city of Orlando, but throughout the state of Florida, due to this law,” Scout said Friday during a news conference announcing the lawsuit.
Along with the bathroom restrictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature this year approved a measure that prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy for minors and imposes new restrictions on medical care for transgender adults. A federal judge blocked portions of the law, but the state is appealing. A separate “drag-show” ban passed this year and signed by DeSantis bars venues from admitting children to what are called “adult live performances.” The state also is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that blocked the law from being enforced.
The laws “are part of a three-year push by Florida legislators and elected officials to remove TGNCI (transgender, gender nonconforming and certain intersex) perspectives and TGNCI people from civil society,” the lawsuit, filed by attorneys with the Southern Legal Counsel and the Center for Constitutional Rights, said.
The lawsuit pointed to “public statements” from lawmakers and other officials and argued the comments “irrefutably demonstrate” the bathroom restrictions were “designed to target and demean the existence of TGNCI people and exclude them from accessing sex segregated facilities in accordance with their gender.”
The legal challenge also alleged that the law “impermissibly burdens” plaintiffs’ rights to engage in speech.
“When TGNCI people use an affirming restroom or facility, they engage in symbolic speech because they communicate to the world and all who perceive them that they are their chosen gender, even if that gender differs from their sex assigned at birth,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers argued.
Florida is among numerous GOP-led states that have targeted transgender people and the LGBTQ community. DeSantis, who is running for president, frequently elevates the issue and has framed the laws as aimed at protecting children and women.
But Christynne Wood, a 67-year-old trans woman who is a plaintiff, called the restroom restrictions “fascist and absurd.”
“You have nothing to fear from me being in the proper restroom. You have nothing to fear from me standing next to me in a public gallery. And how dare the state of Florida tell me that I can’t use the proper restroom because I was born with a certain medical condition,” she said during Friday’s news conference.
–Dara Kam, News Service of Florida
Anonymous says
They need to use the bathroom that matches their body parts. If they have a punishment, use the men’s room, if they have a vagina, use the women’s room. Plain and simple
Moriah Smith says
Conservative News report: Imagine common sense ruling the day!
‘A Devastating Ruling For The Trans Cult’: Matt Walsh Breaks Down Federal Court’s Quashing Of ACLU In TN Trans Case
Pierre Tristam says
Its ignorance aside, the Freudian autocorrect in the comment above is priceless.
Skibum says
If Florida’s ridiculous and unnecessary bathroom rules are to stand, just how in the world do our “enlightened leaders” in Tallahassee plan to enforce it? I mean, come on, is this state going to take the lead of the Iranian religious police and empower a new cadre of law enforcement that Deathsantis might call the Pubic Police? Will all residents and tourists here in Florida have to start carrying birth certificates on their persons to verify that the bathroom they are entering matches with what it says on their birth certificate, and is someone going to be doing a visual inspection of every person’s genitals while we are standing in line at the door with our legs crossed or jumping up and down so we don’t pee our pants before getting to a toilet or urinal??? What absurdity ever led an elected governor to even propose something that in reality CANNOT be enforced without violating a person’s privacy?! But, of course, an individual’s rights has never stood in the way of authoritarians and dictators… or should we start calling these idiots dick taters?
jake says
Better yet, make all public bathrooms unisex. It will take about 10 seconds before women start screaming for their own.
Laurel says
Anonymous: How lucky for you to have a “plain and simple” world!
Now, let’s talk about reality and a scientific world. All embryos start out female. As hormones kick in, in approximately 49% of the cases, the labia becomes the scrotum. The mammary glands stay neutral. For the males, the nipples stay, but are not used for nursing. We lose our tails. Sometimes, the fetus has both genitalia.
Not so plain and simple, right? It’s really a spectrum, hence the rainbow flag.
These cases that seem different from the most of us, are very rare. Republicans jump on it because they have no real plans. This, clearly feeds your fears, which is what they are trying to do.
Laurel says
Jake: Not all bathrooms, but some. Women tend to poop and pass massive gas, more at home rather than publically, and are, usually, less messy. So, having a unisex bathroom in small places is okay, and having a women, men’s and unisex rooms in bigger places may be a partial answer.
Checking people’s genitalia before they use a restroom is off the wall insane. Republicans sure are obsessed with the subject of genitalia.
Sherry says
@jake. . . as usual, “you” have absolutely no idea what you are talking about! All the educated/evolved women I know use “unisex” toilets without any problem at all. If you travel to many, many other countries you are often not given a choice.
Of course, then again, perhaps you either don’t know any educated/evolved women. . . OR, is it that you would never listen to them anyway? Pathetic!
Sherry says
@ Skibum, As usual, your reasonable thought process is much appreciated by those of us who still possess our independent thinking ability. An asinine law that is completely unnecessary, and “unenforceable”!
It’s quite simple. . . have one door that says “Urinals Only”, and the other one that says “Private Booths Only”. . . DUH!
Skibum says
Thank you for setting anonymous “straight” about human biology. The truth is that there is nothing simple or straight forward about human development. There are still many, many things that the smartest medical and scientific minds on the planet have yet to learn about human biology, psychological development, and why some people are heterosexual while others are gay or bi, or seem to have developed into a body they feel is foreign and choose to transition into the opposite sex. The truth is that there is probably nothing more complex than the human body and mind. Those who only see black and white and seek to pigeon hole others into categories only because they do not possess the knowledge, ability or willingness or understand that each of us are INDIVIDUALS should be left to themselves and not listened to because it is often a complete waste of time to try to reason or teach those who do not wish to learn or understand others who are different.
Been There says
1.7% of humans are born intersexed, with sexual organs indicative of both male and female.
Laurel says
I would think that “punishment” would be a long ways from “penis.” Is that anything like “dirty pillows” (Carrie)?
It is funny, though!
Laurel says
Been There: I wonder how DeSantis would sort them out while in line to the bathrooms.
Meanwhile, I just read how men can lactate under extreme conditions such as starvation. Well, I guess that explains nipples.