Transgender woman settles case against hotel that got her jailed for eight days

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Transgender woman settles case against hotel that got her jailed for eight days

Meagan Taylor was arrested last July in Iowa while staying at Drury Inn
with a friend after staff called police to report ‘two men’ engaged in
prostitution

Zach Stafford in Chicago
Wednesday 29 June 2016 23.44 BST

A transgender woman who was jailed for eight days after hotel staff called the police to report “two men” engaging in prostitution, has settled her lawsuit against the hotel.

Last July, Meagan Taylor, 22, and her friend, both black transgender women, spent the night at the Drury Inn in West Des Moines, Iowa. The pair had been on their way to Kansas City to attend a funeral. But Taylor wound up getting arrested and spending eight days in a county jail after being found in possession of her hormone drugs without a copy of her prescription, a charge that was later dropped.

While the details of Taylor’s case could not be disclosed due to a confidentiality agreement tied to the settlement, her case is a reflection of the continued struggles transgender people face across the US, civil liberties groups said.

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The ACLU was able to settle the case, because Iowa is one of only 16 states that protects transgender people from discrimination under state law.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/29/transgender-woman-meagan-taylor-iowa-hotel

[MH1]

1. SMH. But wait, let me get this straight. If I have a pack of progesterone tabs on me

but don't have a written prescription - I can go to jail?

Does it work that way for birth control too?

I always assumed just having the bottle / packet labeled from the pharmacy was sufficient. Even for oxycodone. Or did this woman have the drugs but not in the pharmacy packaging?

Sorry if this is a bit of a tangent. I'm just wondering if that's even a real law in the first place. Or were they just trying to hassle her in every way possible, never mind if there isn't even a law?

[niyad]

2. "without a copy of her prescription"-- uhhhh, idiots, if one has the drugs, one does

not have a copy of the prescription. the appropriate label is on the box or bottle. apart from that bit of stupidity, who in the hell called the cops in the first place, and why?

[whistler162]

3. Unless she had them in a travel

container, you know AM/PM 7 days type case. Someone with really deep issues called the cops.

[MillennialDem]

4. It's not illegal to have pills without a label/container. It's illegal drugs that are

illegal. Otherwise drug addicts would put illegal drugs in cheap prescription bottles and get away with it.

Estrogen, progesterone, and spironolactone (common trans drugs) are not even illegal to carry without a prescription anyway as they are not controlled substances. The prescription is because you can't easily buy them over the counter, not because it's illegal to possess them otherwise.

Now of course, having pills without a container can get you hassled by police, but if you look closely at most pills... they are in some way different from each other. You'll never see two that look exactly alike (unless they are the same drug and dose). They will vary some way in size, shape, or color. Also, they often have a stamp on them indicating the medication and dosage. These were cops who were either untrained and didn't know what illegal pills look like, or were playing stupid "they might have been illegal, we weren't sure."

Not to mention the bigoted hotel staff's role in this as well...

[niyad]

5. thank you for that very useful information. I carry ibu's and assorted herbal supplements

in a small bottle all the time.

[ryan_cats]

6. Hmmm

Hmmm, been looking in my med cabinet?

If you have prescription meds, you should have them in the correct bottle even if they are only penicillin. Do you want to give the Gestapo any reason to mess with you?

[MillennialDem]

7. You should definitely not give the cops a reason to mess with you. Again though, it's not illegal

[ryan_cats]

8. Agreed

Agreed but it is illegal if you have prescription narcotics in a 'stamp' bag.