Trans man beaten up after being made to use women’s bathroom. He was the one arrested
Noah Ruiz was left with bruises and cuts after being attacked by a group of men because he was told to use the women’s restroom. (Fox 19 WXIX)
A trans man was arrested after he was viciously beaten by a group of men for using a women’s restroom – as he’d been told to.
Warning – violence.
Noah Ruiz, 20, told Fox 19 WXIX that he was advised to use the women’s bathroom by the owner of Cross’s Campground in Camden, Ohio, United States, while visiting on 3 July.
He did as he was told, but said a woman in the stall became upset when he entered the restroom.
“I was using the bathroom, and she just started shouting,” Ruiz said. “She was like: ‘Who the [expletive] is in here?’”
He continued: “And I replied: ‘I am.’ My girlfriend replied: ‘I am as well.’
“She was like: ‘No man should be in this bathroom. Like, if you’re a man you need to use a man’s bathroom.’
“And I was like: ‘I’m transgender. Like, I have woman body parts, and I was told to use this bathroom.’”
Ruiz said three large men approached him when he left the bathroom. He said the men choked him and threatened to kill him, even though he told them that he was “following the rules” by “using the right bathroom”.
“They, like, grabbed me up off the ground,” Ruiz said. “They choked me out. They said: ‘I’ll kill you, you [expletive] doing all this.’”
He told the outlet that he was left with cuts and bruises from being “punched in the back of the head” by the men.
Ruiz’s mother, Jennifer Ruiz, claimed the men repeatedly called her son a homophobic slur as they beat him.
But when the police showed up, it was Ruiz – not his attackers – who was arrested for disorderly conduct and obstructing official business.
Preble County Michael Simpson told WXIX that Ruiz was “highly intoxicated” and described him as becoming “belligerent”.
Simpson added that officers weren’t initially aware of the attack against Ruiz when they arrived as there was a “large crowd” gathered in the campground.
According to Jennifer, Ruiz was “so upset at the time” and was “trying to explain what has happened”. She said Ruiz did “get out of hand” when no one would listen to him, but that police “immediately started shoving him to the ground” when they arrived.
“So Noah did then get out of hand, and he admits to his part of getting out of hand, from screaming, yelling,” Jennifer said. “He was in defence mode, and when police got there, they didn’t listen to him.”
Jennifer continued: “They just immediately started shoving him to the ground and doing what they needed to do.”
Ruiz was able to file a report with police about the attack and said he wants the men held accountable for the hateful assault.
Jennifer added that “something does need to be done to the people who hit him” and called on the police to press “charges against them for hitting him”.
Simpson told WXIX that police are looking for the men involved in the attack against the trans man. He added, after interviews, authorities will consult with the prosecutor’s office to see if charges will be filed.
