The City Council of Oxford in Alabama voted to pass a new law that requires people to use public bathroom aligned with their birth sex.
The new rule also covers changing rooms, apart from restrooms, within the police jurisdiction of the city of Oxford.
Police Chief Bill Partridge told Al.com that if anyone reports an uncomfortable situation at public restrooms, police would come to witness any crime. If the alleged offender is still there by the time police arrives, that person may be charged with $500 fine or up to six months in prison, a punishment which is similar as in public indecency cases.
"If somebody sees something that makes them uncomfortable, they would call the police," he said. "If the person is still there when the officer arrives, the officer has to witness the crime. Then we take down the person's information, and the person who reported it has to sign out a warrant."
Council President Steven Waits said that the new law was not meant to target transgender people, but to protect women and children.
He read from a prepared statement, saying that the law was "not out of concerns for the 0.3 percent of the population who identify as transgender," but "to protect our women and children."
The ordinance said that people using public bathrooms "do not reasonably expect to be exposed to individuals of the opposite sex while utilizing those facilities."
"The council further asserts that single sex public facilities are places of increased vulnerability and present the potential for crimes against individuals utilizing those facilities which may include, but not limited to, voyeurism, exhibitionism, molestation and assault and battery," it continued.
The law does not mention the word "transgender," but comes soon after Target changed its policy to eliminate gender lines in bathrooms, which the council said threatened the safety of women and children.
However, LGBT rights groups say that the law is discriminatory, and even went beyond the North Carolina bathroom ordinance which is applicable only in government premises.
"With the passage of HB2, North Carolina became the first state to enact this type of legislation and is currently facing a federal court challenge and fierce backlash. Oxford's ordinance is unprecedented in that it enumerates criminal penalties, including the potential for jail time, for violations. It also applies to bathrooms and locker rooms citywide, including in private businesses, which goes further than the similar provision in North Carolina's law which applies to government buildings," said Ianthe Metzger of Human Rights Campaign.
A petition to oppose Target's decision to open the bathrooms to either sexes has received over one million signatures, which says that the policy "means a man can simply say he 'feels like a woman today' and enter the women's restroom... even if young girls or women are already in there... Target's policy is exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims. And with Target publicly boasting that men can enter women's bathrooms, where do you think predators are going to go?"
The law makes exception to the bathroom rule for those who offer emergency medical assistance to sick and elderly people and are permitted to enter any room, along with adults who accompany children under the age of 12 to any of the restrooms.
