(LA Blade) A Cincinnati, Ohio-area transgender man was attacked earlier this month for using the women’s restroom at a local campground.
Cincinnati news outlet FOX 19 reported Noah Ruiz, a 20-year-old trans man, was beaten over the July 4 weekend for using the women’s restroom, something he was told to do, at a Preble County campground located roughly 40 miles from the Queen City.
Ruiz told the station he was punched in the back of the head, leaving him with bruises.
The incident underscores the danger of trans people using restrooms according to their sex assigned at birth, something some state and local lawmakers want to force trans people to do. Many of the laws, including one signed by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt in May, target trans youth in schools.
The Independence Day weekend incident happened after a woman saw Ruiz in the bathroom and started shouting, he said.
“Who the [expletive] is in here?” the woman said, according to Ruiz.
After Ruiz and his girlfriend made themselves known the woman said: “No man should be in this bathroom.”
“I’m transgender,” he replied. “Like, I have woman body parts, and I was told to use this bathroom.”
As he was walking out, Ruiz told the station, three large men approached him, grabbed him off the ground and “choked me out.”
“I’ll kill you, you [expletive] doing all this,” one of the men said, according to FOX 19.
“Dude, I’m not, I’m using the right bathroom,” Ruiz replied, explaining he was following the directions of the campground’s owner, Rick Cross.
“I’m following the rules,” he said.
In the end, Ruiz was left with several cuts, gashes and bruising, according to the outlet.
Police later showed up, arresting Ruiz for disorderly conduct and obstructing official business. According to Preble County Sheriff Michael Simpson, deputies weren’t initially aware of the assault, noting that Ruiz was highly intoxicated and becoming belligerent.
“Noah was so upset at the time, he was trying to explain what has happened, and no one was listening to him,” Ruiz’s mother, Jennifer Ruiz, said, adding: “He admits to his part of getting out of hand, from screaming, yelling. 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.”
Ruiz’s mother also said the men repeatedly used a homophobic slur.
Following his arrest, Ruiz was able to file an assault report with the sheriff’s office. He told FOX 19 he wants the men held accountable.
“If we don’t do something about it, who is going to do something about it?” Ruiz’s mother said.
Katelyn Burns, a trans freelance journalist and MSNBC writer, said on Twitter that despite Ruiz doing what conservatives and TERFs, or trans-exclusionary radical feminists, want him to do, he was assaulted and arrested.
SFGN and the Los Angeles Blade are media partners.
