A hotel manager in Des Moines, Iowa was so concerned about two transgender women checking into a hotel she called emergency services.
Meagan Taylor and a friend were on their way to attend a funeral and checked into the Drury Inn. The front desk clerk and the Manager of the hotel were concerned when Meagan’s ID showed a different gender to how she presented.
After Meagan and her friend went to their room the Hotel Manager called emergency services 911 and asked for the police.
The caller asks police if they could run the guests name through a data base because they were dressed as women. When the emergency operator said she was not legally allowed to do that, the callers asks for the police to come to the hotel because she’s worried the guests might be sex workers.
You can read Meagan’s account of the interaction with police here. While police found no evidence of prostitution they arrested Meagan for using a false name and not having a copy of her hormone prescription with her. She ended up spending 8 days in jail and was unable to support her friend at the funeral.
Her case has now been taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union and the audio of the 911 call has been released. You can read Meagan’s personal account of her ordeal on their site.
Chase Strangio, staff Attorney at the ACLU has described Meagan’ story as a good example of how much work is still needed to protect transgender people under the law in the USA.
“Meagan’s story should be a galvanizing reminder of the tremendous amount of work to be done to end discrimination against and violence toward transgender people.
“We need explicit laws protecting trans people from discrimination in public accommodations, employment, credit, and housing like the law in Iowa that is enabling Meagan to take legal action against the Drury Inn.
“We need to end barriers to obtaining accurate identification so people like Meagan are not outed to discriminatory strangers when they present their IDs.
“We need to end the profiling of transgender women of color as sex workers by law enforcement and civilians and disrupt the cycles of poverty, incarceration, and violence that are killing too many in the trans community.” Strangio wrote on the group’s website.
Drury Inn was contacted for comment.
