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In 28 states, a hotel can refuse service to a transgender person, or discriminate against them in other ways, and face no legal repercussions. But this sort of discrimination is illegal under Iowa law, so a black trans woman filed a civil rights complaint Tuesday against a hotel that called the police on her, forcing her to spend eight days in j
In July, 23-year-old cosmetology student Meagan Taylor and her best friend, who is also black and trans, checked into the Drury Inn, a hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa. The two were traveling from Illinois to Kansas City, Missouri, for a funeral. The hotel staff members responsible for checking Taylor and her friend in asked to make a copy of Taylor’s identification, which listed her sex assigned at birth.
In a complaint filed with Iowa’s Civil Rights Commission, Taylor recalls that the hotel staff “gave us looks of disgust” and said her prepaid card would not work without trying it.
Staff at the hotel called the police after checking the friends in, because, according to the staff, they were “men dressed like women” engaging in sex work. When the police arrived at the hotel the next morning, they went through Taylor’s purse and found hormones prescribed to treat her gender dysphoria. The police arrested her for not having the prescription on hand. Taylor was taken to the local jail, without being charged for sex work. The charges against her were later dismissed and she was bailed out with donations from people who read about her story.
