Jessica Rush told KXAS-TV she filmed the last seconds of the encounter on her cell phone Thursday afternoon at the Baylor Medical Center in Frisco, Tex.
“My first thought was ‘I’m about to be attacked’ just because I am 5 [foot]3, female,” Rush said. “I understand one thing if you are like a cop of the Dallas Police Department, but just some random guy coming in I think is absolutely absurd and inappropriate.”
Rush, who is not transgender, was receiving treatment for an injured arm at the hospital Thursday as so-called “bathroom bills” prompt debates about the use of public restrooms by transgender people. Rush's Facebook video of the conversation had drawn over 10,000 views by Monday.
“When I saw you enter...I thought you was…,” the as-yet-unidentified man said.
“A boy?” Rush replied. She was wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts.
“You know it’s difficult,” the man said with a shrug as he walked away from the bathroom. “You are dressed like a man. Of course, you are dressed like a man, so…”
He later told Rush he was “confused” when he saw her go into the bathroom and went into the restroom with his mother “to make sure she was good.”
Baylor Medical spokeswoman Julie Smith said the incident was not reported and therefore isn't being investigated by hospital officials. Representatives for the Frisco Police Department didn’t immediately respond Monday afternoon to a request to know whether police are reviewing it.
Rush, who didn’t immediately respond to a request for an interview, wrote on Facebook saying “Welcome to my world” and asking, “Do you actually think I would choose this life?” She shared local and national news reports as word of the video spread over the weekend.
“To make things clear, I stand for safety of humans in all race, gender, height, age, sex, etc…” Rush wrote on Facebook. “There are no sides..Crimes are crimes, inappropriate pictures and pedophiles should be held accountable, and using the bathroom shouldn't ever be this big of an issue..There's not one human God placed on this earth that doesn't use the bathroom ... Let's all just #peeinpeace.”
The City Council of fellow Dallas suburb Rockwall is considering a bill Monday restricting people to the bathroom of the gender on their birth certificates, The Dallas Morning News reported. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick discussed the issue last week, though he stopped short of saying Texas should adopt a law like one passed in North Carolina in March.
“This issue is plain and simple: We should not allow men into women’s restrooms. We worry too much about being politically correct and not offending anyone,” Patrick said. “I certainly don’t want a man going into a bathroom or locker room with my mom, my wife, my daughter or my granddaughter, and I know that most Texans feel the same.”
Patrick noted he helped defeat a Houston anti-discrimination ordinance in November that “allowed men to enter ladies’ bathrooms and locker rooms.”
The passage of North Carolina’s law marked the first such state legislation in the country. Yet lawmakers in 13 states this year and eight states in 2015 considered similar bills, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Experts said enforcement of such statutes, including any potential punishments, will prove complicated.
The bills could turn state agencies, schools and universities into “potty police,” said Rose Saxe, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Who gets asked to provide their papers before going into a bathroom is left unknown,” Saxe said.
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