A transgender woman who was arrested after washing her hands in the toilets of the Florida Capitol is “willing to suffer for dignity”.

20-year-old Marcy Rheintgen, from Illinois, was arrested for trespassing after she made state officials aware that she planned to use the facilities in protest of a law which bans trans women from female toilets.

The 2023 Facility Requirements Based on Sex Act makes it a misdemeanour offence for someone to use single-sex spaces, such as toilets or changing rooms, that do not align with their biological sex at birth.

The charge is a second-degree misdemeanour which can be punished up to 60 days in jail.

Rheintgen was released after 24 hours, having never thought she would be taken into custody, and now must find a way to return to the Sunshine State for court hearings.

In a statement exclusively given to PinkNews, she admitted being “really scared of what’s going to happen”.

She went on to say: “I’ll likely go to a men’s prison for a long time, where I’ll be forcibly detransitioned, have my head shaved and probably be raped. It is horrifying and morally abhorrent that when we see different and unique members of our society, our first instinct is to imprison them.”

Some people have suggested “I be imprisoned for life or should have to register as a sex offender or [be] killed and it makes me sick”, Rheintgen said. Even some transgender people were critical of her actions because of the way in which she went about the act of civil disobedience.

“Most Americans these days are angry and miserable and have a lust for vengeance that they simply can no longer quench in their personal life, so they take it out on those who are smaller than them, those who cannot fight back.

“We haven’t just seen this with radical and violent transphobia, we’ve seen it with the rise of antisemitism, the disgust and contempt for immigrants, and the way people have begun to speak about the most vulnerable among us.

“People have asked about my ideology and it’s simple: dignity. My ideology is dignity. You don’t have to be pro-trans to believe in this, you don’t have to be pro-gay or pro-Jew, pro-immigrant or pro-Black, you just have to be pro-dignity, you just have to be pro-humanity.

“I don’t believe people should be imprisoned for their immutable characteristics. I don’t think I should rot in a cell because I’m transgender, even if I was uppity enough to use the bathroom that people don’t like.”

She had sent letters to officials informing them that she was going to use a specific toilet in the Capitol building on 19 March in protest of the legislation and included a photograph of herself for identification.

“I know that you know in your heart that this law is wrong and unjust,” she wrote. “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 you won’t arrest me.”

Rheintgen was allegedly met by two police officers outside the toilets but she went in regardless and was arrested.

“Everything that is politics seems very abstract and philosophical from far away. This is the first time it’s really affected me. I got arrested and I got sent to jail because of governor (Ron) DeSantis’ policies. That’s crazy,” the Miami Herald quoted her as saying.

Rheintgen also told PinkNews that she does not believe God makes mistakes.

“I don’t think he sees his children as failures or disgusting. I think God loves all his children. Ultimately, if I go to prison, that’s OK because he will protect me,” she said.

“If I suffer as a result of it, he will use it to more deeply heal and purify my heart. No one ever talks about how suffering is redemptive and healing when you properly sanctify it.

“I’m willing to suffer for the trans community. I’m willing to suffer for rights. I’m willing to suffer for dignity.”

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