A transgender man in South Carolina claims he was accosted in a bar by staff, called anti-trans slurs, and arrested by police for using the women’s restroom — the very restroom that conservatives would typically argue he should use due to being assigned female at birth.
Luca Strobel, who posts on TikTok as @FulltimeCowboy, recently posted a pair of videos in which he recounted going to the Sand Dollar Social Club in Folly Beach on Friday, May 16, as a designated driver for a friend, Caroline Frady, who was at the bar.
Upon arriving at the bar, the 25-year-old attempted use the men’s room, but there were no stalls, only urinals, meaning he was unable to use the facilities.
An employee of the bar warned Strobel and his friend against entering the bathroom of the “opposite” sex.
But after a brief exchange, Strobel said he believed he had permission to enter the women’s restroom and use the stalls. He noted that he and Frady were the only two people in the restroom at the time, something Frady confirmed when speaking to Erin Reed of the transgender-focused Erin in the Morning Substack.
A man claiming to be the bar’s owner burst into the restroom and peered over the stall to look at Strobel.
“They’re looking over the top of the stall at me without my clothes on,” Strobel said in his video. “They can fully see me naked other than me having my shirt on, and they just start screaming that there’s ‘a man’ in here.”
Strobel and Frady were ejected from the bar as bar employees called him anti-transgender slurs.
Police, who had been called to the bar, were waiting at the door. They claimed to be arresting him for “trespassing” and “public intoxication.”
Strobel said a police officer handcuffed him “so tight that I can’t even feel my fingers,” leaving bruises on his hands. He claimed the arresting officer also repeatedly called him a “little girl.”
“We didn’t get booked, but we did get cuffed, and when we got to the station, we were asking a bunch of questions that they refused to answer,” Strobel said in his first video. “They just kept saying, ‘Take it up in court, take it up in court, take it up in court.'”
In the second video, Strobel said he was released on $500 bond, issued a trespass notice permanently barring him from entering Sand Dollar Social Club, and issued a ticket for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.
He told Reed that he had not consumed a single drink on the night in question. However, he does not have definitive evidence, as officers did not issue a breathalyzer test.
There is currently no state law in South Carolina preventing a transgender man from using the women’s restroom in public accommodations, including bars. The state does have a law prohibiting individuals in K-12 schools from using restrooms that do not align with their assigned sex at birth.
However, in this case, even if there were a law that expanded beyond K-12 schools, Strobel would technically not be violating such a law.
Strobel’s arrest and detention is yet another piece of evidence showing that there is a great deal of cognitive dissonance that naturally accompanies the enforcement of “bathroom bans.”
Supporters of such bans claim that people should use only restrooms aligning with their assigned sex at birth, but will routinely bristle at the concept of a person who is masculine-presenting — whether lesbian, transgender, or simply someone who does not conform to stereotypical forms of gender expression — in female-designated spaces, even if that person was assigned female at birth.
Strobel told Reed he believes the bar staff knew of his transgender identity because scars from his mastectomy, or “top surgery,” were visible through his shirt. But he is refusing to hide his identity, feeling that transgender visibility is important.
Strobel has since posted more videos claiming he feels unsafe and fears for his life.
Because he believes it is no longer safe to remain in South Carolina, he is trying to raise funds using GoFundMe to relocate to a state where he does not have to worry about being targeted for his identity.
James Lantz, a 64-year-old gay man with terminal cancer -- known online as the "Angry Gay Grandpa" -- has been ordered to pay $16,575 in damages and a $200 fine after gluing his hand to a railing in the Pennsylvania State Capitol last year to protest anti-transgender lawmakers. The Burlington, Vermont, resident was initially charged with two felonies -- institutional vandalism and criminal mischief -- along with a misdemeanor offense.
Lantz later accepted a plea deal in which prosecutors reduced the vandalism charge to a misdemeanor. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, agreed to pay restitution for damage to the railing and nearby seating in the State Senate’s visitors’ gallery, and will serve a year on probation, according to PennLive.
The U.S. Department of Education announced that June would be honored as "Title IX Month."
The announcement is widely viewed as a swipe at the LGBTQ community, and in particular, the transgender community, which has traditionally June as Pride Month.
Title IX is the law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funding.
Historically — and in the view of conservatives — Title IX was intended to protect individuals based on their sex assigned at birth, and is widely credited with expanding educational and athletic opportunities for women.
In another swipe at the transgender community, the national monument honoring what is widely seen as the seminal event of the modern LGBTQ rights movement has erased all mention of transgender and queer people.
Each June, the Stonewall National Monument in New York City typically decorates the fence surrounding Christopher Park -- the small park adjacent to the historic Stonewall Inn and part of the official monument -- with various Pride flags.
In past years, the display has featured a mix of flags -- the familiar six-stripe rainbow Pride flag, the blue, pink, and white transgender Pride flag, and the "Progress" flag, which adds stripes for Black and brown communities and a chevron design incorporating transgender and intersex Pride colors.
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