A bar owner in South Carolina reportedly spied on a trans man while he used a women’s restroom stall and then called him anti-trans slurs shortly before police detained and charged the trans man for public intoxication and disorderly conduct. The trans man, who said he was sober and not creating a disturbance on the night in question, shared his experience on the video-sharing platform TikTok and is now crowdfunding his move to California, where he expects to feel safer.

South Carolina doesn’t have a law restricting trans bathroom use in businesses, and the trans man has an “F” gender marker on his government-issued identification, meaning that his restroom use matched his ID. While businesses can sometimes establish their own policies around bathroom use, Advocates for Trans Equality says that trans people are allowed to use restrooms matching their gender identity under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

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Luca Strobel, a 25-year-old transgender man, arrived at the Sand Dollar Social Club bar in Folly Beach around 11:15 p.m. on Friday, May 16 so he could be a designated driver for his friend, 25-year-old Caroline Frady, who had been drinking to celebrate her birthday.

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When Strobel entered the men’s room, he found that it only had three urinals with no dividers between them and no lock on the door, making it unable for him to use. So, after allegedly getting a female employee’s permission to use the women’s restroom, Strobel entered the facilities — no women were present, he told the trans news website Erin in the Morning.

“In other words, Strobel was using the bathroom that many conservative lawmakers and anti-trans pundits want to force him to use — and he got arrested anyway, seemingly because of the panic surrounding gendered bathrooms,” S. Baum wrote at the aforementioned website.

While peeing, a man who called himself the bar owner came into the women’s restroom and looked over Strobel’s stall.

“They’re looking over the top of the stall at me without my clothes on,” Strobel said in the 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 said the man demanded that he stop peeing immediately and exit the stall — Strobel finished peeing and then exited the restroom. He then said the bar owner began pushing him out of the bar while calling him a “f**king weirdo” while the aforementioned female employee allegedly shouted transphobic slurs. The owner then allegedly pushed Strobel into the arms of a police officer standing outside the bar, who proceeded to handcuff and charge Strobel and Frady.

Strobel said the officer took his phone and painfully pushed him against a brick wall three times — even though Strobel wasn’t resisting — and accused him of being intoxicated and fighting in the bar, even though neither was true. He said another officer then came and accused him of having drugs, which Strobel didn’t. Strobel said none of the officers asked him what had actually occurred — Strobel was shaking and confused during the whole incident, he said.

He then said an officer shoved him against the police car and tightened the handcuffs so much that he couldn’t feel his fingers, kept referring to him as “little girl,” and kept yelling, “Stop resisting,” even though he and Frady were fully complying. Strobel said police refused to answer any questions about the charges, repeatedly telling them, “Take it up in court.”

Strobel said that when officers returned his belongings to him, one officer said, “Here you go, sir. I mean, ma’am.” Strobel replied, “It’s sir, thank you.”

Strobel said that while he and Frady weren’t taken to the police department, both of them recieved the same charges, a $500 bond, a court date, and an order not to go within 500 feet of the bar under threat of a trespassing charge.

“I’m honestly in shock,” he said in the video. “My entire body hurts. I woke up the next day and couldn’t feel my fingers. I have bruises on my leg. I have a bruise on my arm. I still have anxiety rash, just from thinking about it.”

Strobel said he plans on defending himself in court, but has since started a GoFundMe crowdfundraiser to relocate to California.

“As things get scarier for trans people and after this traumatizing experience, I am certain that I can no longer live here and feel safe,” he wrote in the campaign. He added that he expects he will have to leave his vehicle and will be without a job or secure housing once he relocates.

“This is going to be quite expensive and with my current part-time job here, I have no way of paying my rent and bills while saving for such a drastic move and change. In addition, I do not have health care,” he said.

His crowdfundraiser has raised $5,168 of its $15,000 goal as of Thursday evening.

A recent survey on transgender refugees — that is, trans people relocating from states with anti-trans policies to states with more pro-trans legal protections — found that trans people who lived in less supportive local communities were more likely to move to trans-affirming states.

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