North Carolina man arrested for indecent exposure in women’s restroom
A North Carolina woman says she fears for the
safety of herself and other women in her state after a man reportedly entered
the women's restroom of a popular Charlotte restaurant and fondled himself.
On Sunday, the woman said she was using the
women's restroom at the 7th Street Public Market when she saw an obviously
masculine foot in the stall next to her.
Then she noticed a male voice moaning.
Her husband said that he chased the man down
the street, asking, “Sir, what were you doing in the stall next to my wife, in
the women’s bathroom?”
“He said that he was looking for his
daughter,” the husband said.
Local police arrested a man for indecent
exposure that morning, whom the husband identified as the man in question.
The event comes as the state is embroiled in a
national controversy over the state's resistance to opening restrooms and
private facilities to members of the opposite sex.
“As a mother of a 10-month-old daughter, it
makes me nervous, for myself, for her, for anyone,” the woman told local media.
Two days after the incident, the Obama
administration filed a second lawsuit to overturn the state's law requiring
people to use the restroom that corresponds with the sex listed on their birth
certificate.
In a 70-page legal complaint, the Justice
Department argued that H.B. 2 would add no protections to women from would-be
predators or rapists entering their restrooms, because sexual assault is
already illegal.
But the woman's husband disagrees. “I feel
like there should definitely be stricter rules or stricter laws that protect
women and children who want to just go to the bathroom in peace,” he
said.
