When Williamson County GOP Chairwoman Michelle Evans encountered a biological male in the women’s bathroom at the Texas State Capital in 2023, she was there for a legislative debate on gender reassignment surgery for minors.
“So you and other women were just trying to do your business, get in, get out, you know, wash your hands, get a paper towel, and go,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments, adding, “And there was a man that was at the sink washing his hands.”
“He came in to use the facilities, and we quietly let him do his business, but while he was in the stall, I was telling people like, ‘Just so you know, there’s a man in here,’” Evans tells Gonzales, pointing out that she even held the bathroom door open for the man because she wanted him to see her on his way out.
“And I said, ‘Next time, use the bathroom across the hall. It’s for men,’” she recalls. “And then I get back into the House gallery. A friend says, ‘Did you see? They posted on Facebook there was a man in the women’s restroom.’ And I was like, ‘I was in there, send me the photo.’ I tweeted it out, and then they, the Texas Department of Public Safety Capital Police, seized my phone at the behest of Travis County DA Jose Garza.”
“Throughout this entire time, you have been embattled in just trying to fight off making sure that you don’t get criminal charges placed on you for simply sharing a photo that someone else took of a man in a woman’s bathroom,” Gonzales says.
“Right. Fully clothed, face away from the camera. I’ve never named him. I’ve never shown his face,” Evans explains.
Then on December 9, Evans received an initial opinion back from a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that said, “OK, we’re going to greenlight this investigation, it doesn’t violate her constitutional right to free speech.”
While it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, Evans tells Gonzales that she “was happy to get something back because it was just so quiet and it loomed over my head” — and now she’s gaining support from all over the country and world.
Even the Global Government Affairs’ X account posted: “X is proud to support the legal case of Michelle Evans. … The First Amendment protects Ms. Evans’ speech, yet in a 2-1 vote, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a misguided and dangerous opinion allowing the criminal investigation to go forward.”
“X is therefore assisting Ms. Evans in pursuing an appeal before all 17 judges of the Fifth Circuit. We look forward to the full Fifth Circuit correcting this wrong and preserving free speech, which is the foundation of American democracy,” the post continued.
“It’s like a rocket to the moon at this point,” Evans says, adding, “The story has new legs now and people are kind of understanding that this is happening in Texas.”
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