Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Michigan

Re: Use of Public Restrooms

I don't think there IS a law on transgendered use of public restrooms. I suspect the police don't know of one either.

You might take a look at http://www.transgendermichigan.org/, to see if they know specifics.

Two things:

1) at least a few Michigan cities have human rights ordinances which should offer some measure of protection for gender orientation or identification, so long as the use of the facilities is peaceful.

It would be worth testing government facilities first certainly, because I doubt that peaceful use of toilet facilities, without more, would be found to be disturbing anyone's peace.

Women use stalls, and I think most men's rooms also have at least one stall. If the person has working parts, then it shouldn't matter at all, even at a urinal, it seems to me, given the natural reluctance to investigate others in a bathroom setting! :o))

2) nothwithstanding, there are other laws such as "disturbing the peace," [nuisance laws] which could be applied.

For that reason, while I don't think most people would care, I would think it would be safer for a transgendered female to enter a women's room, than for a transgendered man to use a mens room, simply because of the way the stalls are set up.

Why does this matter? Because if you ever land in court, you want to be RIGHT: that is, you want to be able to show that you bent over backwards not to cause a fuss. It's not the law, you don't have to, but it will play a lot better in court, where the judge is less likely to be of a liberal mind if the transgendered person is as discreet as possible.