Paula Witherspoon
A transgender woman who was ticketed for using a women’s restroom at Parkland hospital last week has a criminal background and is a registered sex offender, Instant Tea has learned.
On Tuesday, we reported that 56-year-old Paula Witherspoon, of Dallas, was cited for disorderly conduct on April 25 after using a women’s restroom at Parkland, Dallas County’s public hospital.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, Witherspoon was convicted of sexual assault of a child involving a 14-year-old girl in 1990 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. That same year, Witherspoon was also convicted of indecency with a child by sexual contact, involving a 15-year-old girl, and sentenced to six years in prison. According to DPS, Witherspoon remains on parole for the indecency conviction.
“Yes, I have a criminal record,” Witherspoon said Wednesday. “I can’t hide that. It’s public record. I made a mistake 22 years ago that has nothing to do with this.”
Ken Upton, supervising senior staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s Dallas office, agreed.
“That may be relevant in other settings,” Upton said, “and it paints a bad picture.”
But he said there’s no evidence that in this instance, Witherspoon did anything other than use a bathroom.
“Transgender people have a right to use a bathroom,” he said.
He explained circumstances where Witherspoon’s criminal history might be relevant — if she had followed a child into a restroom or if she had been looking in other stalls — but he said there was no account of anything like that happening.
The account of the incident that Witherspoon repeated Wednesday was that she entered the bathroom, used a stall, washed her hands and left. The complaint against her was not made by someone else in the bathroom. She said she wasn’t sure if there even was anyone else in the bathroom.
The complainant was an older woman sitting in a waiting room outside the bathroom who made a comment about a man using a ladies’ room.
“The real story here is not that she used the bathroom every health professional says she should be using,” Upton said.
Rather, he said the story is that one of the largest health providers in the state, which also has one of the largest psychiatric units in Texas would have ticketed a transgender person for using the appropriate bathroom.
However, Parkland has indicated that a similar situation hasn’t happened before and there’s simply a lack of policy. Dr. Roberto de la Cruz, a an openly gay member of Parkland’s Board of Managers, was planning to meet with Witherspoon on Wednesday afternoon and said he had already spoken with the hospital’s CEO. Their intent is to present a new policy.
After Tuesday’s story, questions arose about the date of a letter from Dr. Gloria J. Emmert, Witherspoon’s psychologist at the Dallas VA Medical Center. That letter was dated two days after the ticket was issued.
After receiving the ticket, Witherspoon said she went to see Emmert.
“I was devastated and needed to speak to my psychologist,” Witherspoon said.
She said she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong but wanted to know what she was supposed to do in a similar situation. It was then the psychologist wrote the letter that said explicitly that Witherspoon is expected to use the women’s restroom at the VA hospital, and that other hospitals should respect that.
Other commenters asked why the Dallas city nondiscrimination ordinance doesn’t apply. That law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations throughout the city. However, the law has an exemption for other governmental entities. Parkland hospital is exempt from the city policy because it is administered by the county.
A nondiscrimination policy adopted by county commissioners last year applies only to employment by Dallas County.
Transgendered persons have a right to use the restroom for the gender in which they identify freely and without interference from anyone. A ticket? Please? How safe would she be using the
men’s room.
This is ridiculous. I am sorry but being a woman, myself, if I was in that restroom that lady/man walked into, and used, I would freak out. Whose to say that he/she was not peeking or trying to peek, and whose to say that he does not still have his original male parts. What if he were to rape a girl affter his past he already assulted girls. There have been many cases where people who rape start off with assualt. He does deserve to get cited for that. In my eyes it is not right for a male with male parts dressed as a woman to come into a female bathroom just because he thinks he is a female.
It sure is easy for someone who has a criminal record for accosting young girls to say they are transgendering, put on womens clothing and go trolling in the womens bathroom. The author of the article did not check their facts! Typical of journalism today. The woman making the complaint had been in the bathroom and notified the authorities. This man has a horrific criminal record. Not one but two assaults on young girls. that gives the police the right. We ask the police to protect us and protect our kids, then we tell them they have to do it handcuffed and blindfolded. I have nothing against someone who is truly transgendering but with his history, I do not think that is what this man is doing. I certainly would not want him around if one of my granddaughters were in the bathroom.
It stated that the officer was notified that a male was USING the restroom, NOT lurking about in one. There was NO children present, so ANY part of being a sex offender does not matter in this matter. I KNOW FOR A FACT that my Dad is working on becoming a female, which is a process that takes a great deal of time. You can’t just wake up one morning and say “Oh I’m going to change my sex today'” An expect it to be done before you go to bed that night. And with the courts you must show full cause (Dr, therapist, and surgeon) before someone in her situation can get approved.
The reality for transgender people is that we do need to go to the bathroom like everyone else. And there are people that are afraid of us. When people are emotional and afraid, they don’t always make fair decisions. Like a white woman who holds her purse tight when a black man walks by, her own emotional insecurity gets in the way of being fair and just – he is presumed guilty by being black. We have to learn to face our anxiety in order to treat others with respect and dignity. If we can’t, we need to remove ourselves from the environment and not place the burden on the minority. In other words, it is more just not to use the public restroom if you are afraid of the public, than to excise the people you are afraid of from having the same right that you want to have.
This person looks very much like a man. If I was going into the restroom and saw him, I would’ve have notified the authorities myself as well! He looks like a man wearing a dress…going into a female public bathroom. I would be livid if a child of mine was exposed to that in a restroom. There are numerous single stall restrooms at Parkland Hospital. He should have chosen one of those….expecially being that he is a registered sex offender and there is a possiblity of children being present. The bottom line is, due to his special circumstances (Sex Offender that still looks very much like a man), he should’ve thought twice about his choice, because this will happen again and again.
If we’re gonna deny access to public restrooms to every former criminal that walks through Parkland, we might as well make all the bathrooms broom closets.
All of you hating people because of what you think they are just on their looks. I have seen and known a lots of women who look and dress like men. So what is the be deal of a man dressing and acting like a woman. If that is who they identify themselves, they should still be respected as a human being and deserve the exact same rights of any of us. The previous criminal record was not at play at the time of the arrest. She was acousted by the police just because some woman got her panties in a knot because of what she thought. What would of happened if the person arrested actually turned out to be a woman, whether natural or not? Some of you people need to get with the current century or go crawl back into you hole under a rock!
Very much, he violated his terms of probation and his terms of his sex offender registry by being in places that are known for women and children. In Some states it would have been an automatic trip back to prison, no ifs or buts. Being he’s a convicted felon, a twice convicted sex offender for sexual assault on two teenage girls, doesn’t make a difference whether he’s a tranny or straight.
Miserable fucking people love to shine the light on or alienate Transgender people!! We are different and that’s fine. Don’t take it out on us ladies that your husband woke up one day, looked at you and decided to transition into a woman. It’s life and it’s gonna happen whether you like it or not!! While I am a passable transgender woman, I have had a few run- ins with the most horrible creatures in the restrooms that I don’t see how they don’t get cited for looking like THEY do. lol. Who gives a FU@@ what you think she looks like, or what you think she should look like. If she identifies as she/her, respect her as that. I have met some real women that I’m not sure about, but I respect them as women all the same, not knowing what’s between her legs because it none of my business. God bless my sister. We ALL have skeletons in the closet, and trust me the people with the most horrid skeletons are NOT transgender women, but leave it to the media to make it seem that way. Every time I look at the news, it’s not transgender women having inappropriate relationships with kids. It’s the people who identify as heterosexual.