While in 16 states and the District of Columbia there are laws to protect the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people, Texas does not have any such law. Something that a Dallas transgender woman found out to his chagrin on April 25 after being ticketed for disorderly conduct for entering a woman’s restroom. Paula Witherspoon, previously Paul Witherspoon, told the media, “It was definitely humiliating, degrading … I felt like I was being discriminated against.”
The incident happened in Parkland Hospital in Dallas where authorities called the police after a complaint from a female patient that a man was in the women’s restroom. Witherspoon told the media, “This is 2012, and I’ve been transitioning since 2006, and I’ve never had a problem until I went to Parkland Hospital.” She says see did not meet anyone else in the restroom, but met a female patient when she was walking out. “There was a lady there that said, ‘That’s a man.’ I just ignored her and kept going.”
Soon after, a Parkland officer came and cited her. Witherspoon offered to show a letter from her doctor that states, “She is expected to use facilities consistent with her external presentation, which is female.”
 |
|||
 |
|
Get JD Journal in Your Mail
Subscribe to our FREE daily news alerts and get the latest updates on the most happening events in the legal, business, and celebrity world. You also get your daily dose of humor and entertainment!! |
|
However, her license mentioned her as a man, and the police said they have to follow that. According to the law in Texas, to be cited for disorderly conduct a person must have acted “intentionally or knowingly for a lewd or unlawful purpose.” Clearly the law did not call for ticketing in this case unless there was a complaint of “lewd or unlawful purpose.”
Witherspoon said, “I went to the bathroom, took care of my business, washed my hands and left … I didn’t even see anyone.”
Since the incident, Parkland Hospital has issued a statement mentioning, “Because of the complexity of the issue, the incident is currently under review. Parkland strives to treat patients, visitors and staff with dignity and respect, as well as provide a safe environment at all times.”
Posted by EmploymentCrossing
on May 4, 2012. Filed under Shocking.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Attorney Career Resources is sponsored by BCG Attorney Search, the nation's leading placement firm, specializing in law firm placements.
Here at BCG we get no small number of inquiries from attorneys who have recently (e.g., within the past year) switched firms but, for a wide variety of reasons, find themselves wanting and/or needing to move again and thus want to resume their job search. The reasons for this most often include the following – sometimes a spouse receives a job offer in another market. Sometimes a group of partners makes an untimely departure, leading to business in your new practice group drying up and you sitting at the mercy of a first-in-first-out policy when the inevitable downsizing occurs. Sometimes the firm turns out not to be quite what you expected in terms of opportunity, professionalism, or personality, and you soon find yourself realizing that you may have [...]
June 6, 2013 Read More
 |
||
| Search Thousands of Legal Jobs | ||
|
Job Type: |
||
 |
||
|
Browse Jobs by Location: |
||
|
||
| Keyword Search: | ||
|
||
