Texas Cop Uses Facebook to Threaten Trans Women

A Texas police officer recently took to Facebook to threaten trans women who use the men’s restroom.

Officer Tracy Murphree is currently running for sheriff in Denton County, Texas. In a now-deleted Facebook post reported on by the Dallas Observer, he threatened to put trans women in the hospital if they used a men’s restroom:

“All I can say is this: If my little girl is in a public women’s restroom and a man, regardless of how he may identify, goes into the bathroom, he will then identify as a John Doe until he wakes up in whatever hospital he may be taken to. Your identity does not trump my little girl’s safety. I identify as an overprotective father that loves his kids and would do anything to protect them”

The post is pretty ironic in light of studies indicating trans women are far more likely to be the victims of violence or harassment in a public restroom than the cause of it.

One Facebook user, Amber Dyden Briggle, spoke up. She’s the mother of a trans boy, and had this to say:

“I know you are a protective parent, but SO AM I. If my son were to walk into a women’s room, looking the way he does, he would no doubt be corrected and sent to the men’s room. What we’ve done now is call attention to a young child, only 8 years old, who is now behind closed doors with a bunch of men — had he walked in there to use the bathroom to pee in the first place, no one would have batted an eye, because he looks like and IS a boy. ”

Predictably, Murphree’s reply indicated a total ignorance of the subject at hand:

“Amber, you have demonstrated part of the problem. You advocate your right to defend your child and state that your child has the right to pee in peace. Yet when I advocate my right to defend my child and her right to pee in peace I’m a bigot and dangerous.”

Of course, nobody is trying to take away the rights of Murphree’s child, and threatening to harm someone just because they’re different from you is hardly a right Murphree can claim.

It’s 2016. People are arguing about who can pee where. Don’t let your iPhone fool you into thinking we’re evolved.