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I just saw this in my Facebook feed, and now I'm curious if it's actually true. Do they actually keep records of this? It seems improbable, just because there are so many more trans women than senators, but it would be funny if true.

Picture captioned 'What trans women do in the bathroom', showing four women in a bathroom, putting on make-up and doing their hair. It says: 'More United States Senators have been arrested for sexual misconduct in bathrooms than trans women.'

What trans women do in the bathroom

More United States Senators have been arrested for sexual misconduct in bathrooms than trans women.

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    I think this is the incident referred to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Craig_scandal Jan 23, 2016 at 10:41
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    This question isn't a duplicate but the answer contains relevant material: Do predators assault women in female toilets pretending to be transgender? Jan 23, 2016 at 19:36
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    Would it even be legal for justice system/law enforcement to (1) collect and (2) publicly release sexual orientation or trans status of people arrested for sexual misconduct? If not, then this question seems impossible to answer.
    – user5341
    Jan 24, 2016 at 14:46
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    @user5341: you seem to think that sexual orientation has something to do with this question? Please be aware that one's gender identity, whether one feels that one is a man, or a woman, or somewhere in between, is independent of whom one is attracted to sexually.
    – aqn
    Mar 31, 2016 at 0:37
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    It's probably also worth noting that the claim itself is a straw man argument. At least from what I've heard from advocates of the "bathroom laws" to which this is responding, the primary argument against them stems not so much from concerns over people who are actually consider themselves to be 'trans' as over men 'identifying' themselves as women in order to commit sexual offenses (such as covert photography of women in stalls) in women's bathrooms.
    – reirab
    May 1, 2016 at 21:53

2 Answers 2

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According to "Stamford transgender person charged with sexually assaulting minor" Stamford Advocate June 8, 2011:

A city transgender person was arrested early Wednesday morning after police say she sexually assaulted a teenage boy at Stamford Town Center in April.

Isaiah Johnson, 20, of 202 Ursula Place, was charged with second-degree sexual assault and is being held in lieu of $25,000 bond.

Youth Bureau Sgt. Dedrich Hohn said Johnson, who is known to patrol officers in the South End, was picked up at 2 a.m. Wednesday on Atlantic Street near Veterans Park, where she met with the youth before the April 26 incident. Hohn said the patrol division was alerted to Johnson's arrest warrant Monday night. The victim is a student with special needs, Hohn said.

Hohn said after meeting the youth just after 7 p.m. at Veterans Park on that April night, Johnson allegedly lured him into a men's room at Stamford Town Center.

The assault occurred in the men's room, Hohn said. Police secured videotape of the two going into the bathroom.

Hohn did not provide details on what allegedly occurred in the bathroom. Second-degree sexual assault involves sexual intercourse between someone 13 to 15 years old and another person more than two years older

Senator Craig on the other hand plead guilty to "disorderly conduct", which is not a sexual offense. He allegedly extended his foot and part of his hand into an adjacent stall when using the restroom. But even if you consider what Senator Craig did "sexual misconduct", the statement in the OP is still false.

Edit: some have expressed interest particularly in women's bathrooms even though the OP is generic as to men's/women's/family etc. No senator has been arrested in a women's bathroom; however:

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle 28 January 1929, page 22:

Stephen Wiszak, 24, of 312 E. 12th St., Manhattan, was arrested last night on a charge of felonious assault at 101 Allen St., Manhattan, where he had been pursued by a crowd. Garbed as a woman, wearing an expensive seal coat, Wiszak is alleged to have beaten an unidentified woman with a revolver In the women's rest room of the Rivington st. station. of the 2d ave. elevated rd. Detectives Schneider and Sargeant Brough of the 5th st. station, who captured Wiszak, questioned him In connection with the murder of Mrs. E. Weigand, whose body was found in the washroom of the City Hall station of the B. M. T. on Aug. 5, 1927. A woman told John Dougherty, change agent on the northbound platform of the Rivington st. station, that a man dressed as a woman had followed her that into the washroom, bolted the door behind him, tightened a scarf about her heck and when she struggled beat her on the head with a revolver. She struggled so desperately, she told Dougherty, that her assailant released her and fled. Dougherty believed from the woman's actions that she was intoxicated. Going to the street, her appearance attracted a crowd, to which she related the occurrence. When Wiszak appeared on the street the crowd gave chase. Wiszak took refuge in the Allen st. house, where he was captured.

There is another account of the story in the Reading Times 29 January 1929, page 7:

...She had told John Dougherty, ticket agent on the northbound platform, how a "woman" in the washroom had choked her with her own scarf, and beaten her over the head with a revolver barrel. She said her insistent struggles finally won her freedom. Dougherty thought she was drunk. The victim went to the streets and a crowd heard her story. Wiszak came down the stairs and the crowd pursued him - into a hallway. There detectives arrested him. The woman whose story led to the chase had meanwhile vanished. Wiszak, who fought under the name of Young Eddie, was painted and powdered and wore a sealskin coat, black silk turban, blue flowered dress, flesh colored stockings and tan pumps. He said he had no occupation.

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    While this does fit the exact wording of the claim, I can't help feeling that the idea they were getting at was of strangers being harassed while using a toilet (particularly, in women's toilets), and not of initiating illegally under-age liasons outside a toilet which are then completed inside a men's toilet Feb 1, 2016 at 21:58
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    @user568458 According to NBC, 3 trans persons forced the special needs child into the bathroom, where the sexual assault occurred. nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/… The idea the post is getting at is that a man (Senator Craig) allegedly attempting to flirt with another man in the bathroom is worse than what any trans person has ever been arrested for allegedly doing in a bathroom.
    – DavePhD
    Feb 1, 2016 at 22:16
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    Do we know if there was a conviction, or just an allegation?
    – Oddthinking
    Feb 1, 2016 at 22:49
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    If I understand the alleged situation correctly, it would not have been affected by a law that prevented a transgender woman from entering the women's toilets. (Still answers the question though.)
    – Oddthinking
    Feb 1, 2016 at 22:53
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    @Oddthinking Isaiah Johnson is a non-compliant sex offender who is required to register as a sex offender. He was convicted 11/22/2011 and released 08/22/2014. Persons knowing his/her whereabouts are asked to contact the state of Connecticut. icrimewatch.net/…
    – DavePhD
    Feb 1, 2016 at 23:03
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Over the past 15 years there is one documented incident involving a US Senator being arrested for sexual misconduct in a bathroom.

Another source responded to this or a similar meme here "Spokespeople from the Transgender Law Center, the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union told Mic that no statistical evidence of violence exists to warrant this legislation. Vincent Villano, the director of communications for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told Mic in an email that there isn't any firm data to corroborate these lawmakers' claims, and that NCTE has "not heard of a single instance of a transgender person harassing a non-transgender person in a public restroom. Those who claim otherwise have no evidence that this is true and use this notion to prey on the public's stereotypes and fears about transgender people."

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    patch.com/connecticut/stamford/…
    – DavePhD
    Jan 31, 2016 at 17:11
  • Well that is unfortunate. This didn't start in the bathroom, although a bad situation. I think the memes are trying to tell us that simply being in a bathroom with a transgender person. But I see your point and you found something maybe they did not. Thank you.
    – EskimoPam
    Feb 1, 2016 at 1:20
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    @DavePhD. A transvestite is distinctly different to a transgender person.
    – TRiG
    Feb 1, 2016 at 14:16
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    @TRiG Wikipedia says some "transgender" definitions include transvestites, while other definitions don't. I don't think an arresting officer or anyone other than the person themself would be able to determine the difference, transgender vs. transvestite. I guess it's just a matter of self identification short of a psychological study.
    – DavePhD
    Feb 1, 2016 at 15:19
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    @aqn the OP merely says "bathrooms", not any subset of bathrooms such as so-called men's rooms, women's rooms, family restrooms, unisex restrooms, or unlabeled restrooms. Obviously the OP means to include men's rooms, as that is where Senator Craig was arrested. I wasn't trying to express any opinion about any bathroom law.
    – DavePhD
    Mar 31, 2016 at 8:35

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