The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and ACLU demanded today that the city of Oxford, Alabama, repeal an ordinance that makes it a crime for transgender people to use the public restroom that matches their gender identity, or risk legal action.
In a letter to the City Council, the SPLC describes how the discriminatory ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution and puts the city at risk of losing federal funding. Council members are set to meet this afternoon to reconsider the ordinance. The SPLC said that failure to recall the ordinance would force it to consider legal action.
“Discrimination has no place in 21st century Alabama,” said Chinyere Ezie, SPLC staff attorney. “Yet, that was the path taken by the Oxford City Council when it voted to criminalize transgender people for simply using the restroom. Misunderstanding and fear should never guide public policy decisions.
“Transgender people, like anybody else, should not be treated differently simply because of who they are. Fortunately, city council members have the opportunity to repeal this ordinance. Not only is repeal the right thing to do, it will protect city taxpayers from a potentially expensive lawsuit.”
The city passed the ordinance last week after the retailer Target announced transgender people may use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity, rather than the gender they were assigned at birth. Oxford’s ordinance makes it a misdemeanor for a transgender person to use the restroom that matches their gender identity. Penalties include a $500 fine or six months in jail. The ordinance comes as laws restricting the rights of transgender people have been passed in North Carolina and Mississippi.
The SPLC letter notes that the Oxford ordinance violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment by targeting transgender people for “different and unequal treatment.” It also violates the due process clause. The letter points to the “broad reach and lack of enforcement mechanisms” of the ordinance that leave unclear “whether people risk arrest simply for failing to carry their birth certificates to the restroom at all times.” The city has also endangered federal funding by violating federal civil rights laws, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bars sex discrimination in public schools.
The law also threatens the privacy rights of city residents who are not transgender.
“The very women and children the Ordinance purports to protect may be forced to carry their birth certificates and submit to ‘gender inspections’ in order to gain access to the restroom,” says the letter, which was also signed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation of Alabama.
View the letter here.
