How checking into a hotel led to eight days in jail

A transgender woman went to jail for eight days just for checking into a hotel, and now you can hear the 911 call that started it all. Meagan Taylor, a cosmetology student from Illinois, was traveling with a companion to a funeral when the pair stopped at the Drury Inn Suites in West Des Moines, Iowa. The identification cards that both Taylor and her companion used to check into the motel still have them listed as males, which led the hotel manager to call 911.

The manager initially asked the dispatcher if they could do a background check on the two, then said she wanted to be sure the pair “weren’t hookers.” Police—and hotel staff, obviously—are more likely to assume that transgender individuals are engaging in prostitution. The dispatcher informed the manager she could not do a background check over the phone but said a patrol car would be sent to the location.

While finding no evidence of prostitution, the police arrested Taylor for having hormone medication without a prescription. The charges against Taylor were eventually dropped. 

Taylor filed a complaint against the hotel in November with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission over the incident, which occurred in July 2015. The ACLU, which is representing Taylor in the complaint, says that Meagan’s case typifies life for the majority of trans people of color, and black trans people in particular.