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Transgender man was beaten by 3 men for using women’s restroom. Then he got arrested.

Transgender man was beaten by 3 men for using women’s restroom. Then he got arrested.
Photo: Screenshot

A transgender man in Ohio says he was beaten and later arrested for using a women’s restroom, even though he was told to use the women’s room because he was assigned female at birth.

While camping on July 3, 20-year-old Noah Ruiz was instructed to use the women’s bathroom at a Cross’s Campground in Camden, Ohio. While he and his girlfriend were in the bathroom another woman became upset.

Related: House Democrats support more gender-neutral bathrooms on Capitol Hill

“I was using the bathroom, and she just started shouting,” Ruiz told Ohio Fox affiliate WXIX. “She was like, ‘Who the [expletive] is in here?’ And I replied, ‘I am.’ My girlfriend replied, ‘I am as well.’ She was like, ‘No man should be in this bathroom. Like, if you’re a man you need to use a man’s bathroom.’”

Ruiz explained to the woman that he is transgender and had been told to use the women’s bathroom by the campground’s owner. But when exiting the bathroom, Ruiz says three large men attacked him, leaving him with cuts, gashes, and bruises. Ruiz’s mother, Jennifer Ruiz, says the men repeatedly called her son an anti-gay slur.

“They, like, grabbed me up off the ground. They choked me out. They said, ‘I’ll kill you, you [expletive] doing all this,’” Noah recalled. “And I said, ‘Dude, I’m not, I’m using the right bathroom. Rick Cross, the owner of this establishment, told me to use the bathroom. I’m following the rules.’”

Preble County sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene where they said a large crowd had gathered and that Ruiz was intoxicated and belligerent. They arrested him for disorderly conduct and obstructing official business. Sheriff Michael Simpson said that the deputies were unaware of the assault on Ruiz at the time.

Jennifer admits her son became upset while trying to explain what had happened to him.

“No one was listening to him. So Noah did then get out of hand, and he admits to his part of getting out of hand, from screaming, yelling,” she explained. “He was in defense mode, and when police got there, they didn’t listen to him. They just immediately started shoving him to the ground and doing what they needed to do.”

Bathrooms have typically been a site of frequent harassment, anxiety, and legal issues for trans people. Conservative state lawmakers have tried and at times succeeded in passing laws preventing trans people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, most recently in Alabama and Oklahoma.

But stories like Ruiz’s show that trans people can face harassment regardless of which bathroom they use.

Both Ruiz and his mother say they want the men who attacked Noah to be held accountable. Ruiz later filed an assault report with the Preble County sheriff’s office.

“I feel like something does need to be done to the people who hit him, and the police need to take charges against them for hitting him,” Jennifer said. “That’s not safety, and I worry for the other ones that are there. If we don’t do something about it, who is going to do something about it?”

Simpson says the sheriff’s office is currently looking for the men involved in the alleged assault and will have a prosecutor review the case to determine whether charges should be filed.

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