2007 arrest of trans woman for using women’s bathroom results in apology; helps change law

LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — in 2007, a Los Angeles trans woman visiting Iowa found herself arrested for “trespassing” after using a courthouse’s women’s bathroom. The hiring of an attorney resulted in Alexandra Distance Everheart Wilson getting a letter of apology from the city of Ames, Iowa, and the city’s police chief. In addition, a small financial settlement.

But it did not end there for Wilson. She took the letter and hitchhiked to the Iowa State Capital and met with Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell and told her that there should be a law in place to prevent trans discrimination. By happenstance, Wessel-Kroeschell said she was was working on a transgender protection bill to be presented in the legislature the next day. Wilson gave Wessel-Kroeschell a copy of the Ames apology to use at the next day’s presentation along with the other data complied by Wessel-Kroeschell and her colleagues. Later in the year, Iowa became 1 of the 10 states in 2007 with transgender anti-discrimination laws. This year the legislators in Iowa are considering beefing up trans protections.

Today, Wilson is concerned with many things in our society, including testosterone destroyed by chemicals used in the plant food supply and the use of hormones being prescribed to trans people also being used on cattle. But she also has emotional thoughts on the current state of trans matters: “I would not work at a place where co-workers called me “he” — tired of my heart just panging in pain & crying alone- – a lifetime of this?” . . . I was fired from my last job because my boss learned I was transgender [and] because it “made them feel uncomfortable” . . . Living in poverty & ending up on welfare, then being called “lazy”– this world is too much.”

Wilson’s suggestions to improve conditions include educating students about transgender people in schools and provide single payer healthcare to reduce costs to trans people to make it less of an emotional challenge for them.

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An uphill quest for trans right that began a decade ago for Wilson, seemingly remains so with the surfacing more people hell bent on making our lives miserable. The additional emotional costs to trans people of this is startling to show in some more-than-subtle ways.

Recent Iowa legislative actions: http://www.bleedingheartland.com/2016/03/08/iowa-senate-approves-transgender-protections-in-hate-crimes-law/

2007 Iowa trans anti-discrimination law: https://www.aclu.org/news/iowa-legislature-outlaws-discrimination-based-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity

Watch LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ