Culture and Social Issues

Family Rights Activist, Allegedly Interrogated For Posting Picture Of Male In Women’s Restroom, Sues District Attorney

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• A family advocate and conservative activist in Texas sued the District Attorney of Travis County, Jose Garza, after he had the activist investigated for posting a picture someone else had taken of a biological man using the women’s restroom at the Texas state capitol, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. 
• Michelle Evans, founder of Texans for Vaccine Choice and family rights advocate, posted a picture to Twitter of a biological man washing his hands in the woman’s bathroom at the Texas state capitol that she had copied from another person’s Facebook page, which brought attention to her from the District Attorney who then had her investigated. A lawyer for Evans then filed a lawsuit saying her interrogation, as well as the law used to do so, was unconstitutional. 
• “This is the price a woman pays for speaking out,” Evans told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A Texas family advocate and conservative activist sued the Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza Tuesday after he had the activist investigated for posting a picture someone else had taken of a biological man using the women’s restroom at the Texas state capitol, according to a lawsuit filed by a lawyer for Michelle Evans.

Evans, self-proclaimed “Mama Bear” and founder of Texans for Vaccine Choice, posted a picture to Twitter of a biological man washing hands in the women’s restroom at the Texas state capitol that she had copied from another person’s Facebook page, which gathered the attention of trans activists, the District Attorney and Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers, Evans told the DCNF. Upon further investigation, the officers confiscated Evans’ phone for evidentiary purposes alleging she had violated Texas state law, to which Evans then sued, alleging the law was unconstitutional, she told the DCNF.

Evans was escorting women to the bathroom because she feared that a trans woman, a biological man, would enter the bathroom when she and other women were in it during the debate of Senate Bill 14, Evans told the DCNF. “Sure enough, a man with pink hair came in,” Evans told the DCNF. This interaction led to her posting a photo of Nova Martin, the biological man, to her Twitter page after exiting the bathroom.

Martin is a self-proclaimed “transwoman feminist lesbian druidess poet” that writes erotic poetry about women, accordingto this person’s website. Martin is running for office in 2024 election for Texas House District 64.

Tom McDonald, Evans’ lawyer, spoke with DPS Lt. Luis Verdeja, who said that the investigation of Evans was due to her possibly violating a Texas state law regarding “Invasive Visual Recording,” which states that a person violates the law if they knowingly take a photo of someone without their consent in a bathroom with intent to violate that person’s privacy, according to the lawsuit.

McDonald claimed that this law is unconstitutional on First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment grounds and requested the law be struck down, saying it has a “chilling effect on Evans’ further speech” as well as saying the law as applied in Evans’ case is unconstitutional.

Despite her phone being taken by DPS officers, no warrant was ever secured, Evans told the DCNF. Her phone allegedly still hasn’t been returned.

Evans alleged that she quickly received backlash from activists, with some posting her address on social media. “We had unsolicited deliveries arriving at our home at midnight. Someone posted an ad on craigslist with our address a few days later, leading to several people coming to my home. My address, a photo of my home, and GPS coordinates of my home were posted on social media. I received countless hateful and threatening messages,” Evans told the DCNF.

One social media user told Evans, “i’d love to slam your head against a bathroom stall,” another said “kill yourself,” screenshots shared with the DCNF revealed.

“This is the price a woman pays for speaking out,” Evans told the DCNF.

This lawsuit comes amidst an ongoing debate in the United States regarding whether sex-segregated spaces, such as bathrooms, should be separated on the basis of biological sex or gender identity. Over 100 students alleged being retaliated against for refusing to use shared bathrooms at one Illinois high school. One Idaho school board canceled a policy that would have allowed for bathroom usage based on gender identity following community backlash.

Garza did not immediately return the DCNF’s request for comment. Martin could not be reached by the DCNF for comment.