A 20-year-old trans woman has been arrested for using the women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol. On March 19, Marcy Rheintgen entered the state house in Tallahassee and declared to the officers: “I am here to break the law.”
The Illinois-based college student’s shocking act was to protest against an anti-trans bathroom law. The officers informed that she would receive a trespass warning if she entered. Ignoring the same, she went to the women’s bathroom on the second floor of the Capitol and spent 30 to 60 seconds inside before she was asked to leave.
“I was originally intending to pray the rosary, but I didn’t have enough time. I was just washing my hands, and they told me to leave,” she told The New York Times.
Hi! I’m Marcy, the trans girl who became the first person to be arrested under the trans bathroom bills when I got arrested for using the women’s bathroom! pic.twitter.com/NR7KlrMGQx
— Marcy Rheintgen (@MarcyRheintgen) April 4, 2025
Marcy Rheintgen was arrested on charges of misdemeanor trespassing and spent 24 hours in jail. Her arraignment is scheduled for May, and if she is convicted of the charges, she’ll face a $500 fine and will spend 60 days in prison.
Her bold protest comes after the recently passed “Safety in Private Spaces Act.” Enacted in 2023, the law criminalizes the use of restrooms in alignment with an individual’s gender identity for those whose sex at birth does not match. The act defines males and females by birth, allowing them to use designated restrooms and changing rooms in government facilities, schools, and correctional institutions. The goal is to maintain public safety, decency, decorum, and privacy by assigning restrooms divided on the basis of sex at birth.
Since 2021, at least 19 states have enacted similar anti-trans bathroom laws, which eventually limit the rights of trans people in public facilities. It has received heavy backlash from the LGBTQ+ community and its advocates, labelling it a ‘systematic discrimination’.
20-year-old Rheintgen, who is facing the charges, told The Associated Press, “I wanted people to see the absurdity of this law in practice. If I’m a criminal, it’s going to be so hard for me to live a normal life, all because I washed my hands. Like, that’s so insane.”
After spending 24 hours in jail, she also posted a 23-minute-long video on X in which she said, “The climate around trans issues has gotten, it’s reached a fever peak. And people are dehumanizing us. And there was like a point where I was like, If I don’t go to jail now, I’m going to go to jail later. Things are getting scary.”
What it was like being arrested for using the woman’s restroom. pic.twitter.com/VNQXio8mHf
— Marcy Rheintgen (@MarcyRheintgen) April 7, 2025
Equality Florida, a civil rights organization, has condemned the action taken against Rheintgen. Nadine Smith said in an official statement, “The arrest of Marcy Rheintgen is not about safety. It’s about cruelty, humiliation, and the deliberate erosion of human dignity. Transgender people have been using restrooms aligned with their gender for generations without incident. What’s changed is not their presence — it’s a wave of laws designed to intimidate them out of public life.”
Meanwhile, Florida law enforcement officials told The Times that Rheintgen was arrested and is facing charges for “trespass on property after warning,” and not because of state’s bathroom law.
On the other hand, the young trans woman is “disturbed” after the incident as she considers Florida her “home away from home”. As per Miami Herald, Rheintgen sent letters to Florida lawmakers warning them that she has planned to use a specific women’s bathroom in the Capitol. She also sent her photo for identification.
She wrote in the letter, “I know that you know in your heart that this law is wrong and unjust. I know that you know in your heart that transgender people are human too, and you can’t arrest us away. I know that you know that I have dignity. That’s why I know that you won’t arrest me.”
On the day she planned to use the restroom, she met two officers outside who warned her against entering. However, she decided to ignore them and use the restroom anyway.
