(Newswire.net — April 30, 2016) — The Oxford City Council passed a new law this week stating residents must use public restrooms according their sex as defined by birth, CNN reports. If found in violation of the ordinance, one could face a $500 fine or six months in jail.
The move came after retail giant Target announced it would allow transgender customers and employees to use restrooms they are comfortable with.
According to city attorney Ron Allen, residents told council members they were concerned about Target’s policy.
“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,” states the ordinance.
The ordinance states that the city isn’t trying to discriminate against people who “do not reasonably expect to be exposed to individuals of the opposite sex while utilizing those facilities in public restaurants.”
According to Allen, the policy is not aimed at specifically at transgender persons but is trying to prevent people from abusing policies such as Target’s and using them to prey on people.
Oxford Police Chief Bill Partridge told CNN affiliate WBRC that the law would be enforced just like any other for a misdemeanor. However, exactly how the police are going to enforce checking biological gender of public restroom users is not quite clear. According to Partridge, someone will have to report a misdemeanor, and a police officer “needs to witness the crime.”
After that, Partridge said, the person who called in the complaint would have to sign a warrant.
The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for LGBT rights, stated that this ordinance is “unprecedented in its establishment of criminal penalties for violations of the law, and raises a myriad of privacy and legal concerns, including questions about how the law will be enforced.”
