Police Barge into Walmart Restroom to Confront Butch Lesbian
Sheriff's deputies accused Kalaya Morton of being a "man" due to her gender expression, demonstrating how cis women can be targeted by anti-trans restroom laws.
A Black 19-year-old cisgender lesbian from Phoenix says she was humiliated after Pima County Sheriff’s deputies barged into a Walmart women’s restroom in Tucson that she was using last month.
Kalaya Morton, who describes herself as a “stud,” and is a masculine-presenting woman, says she believes the deputies were called by a store employee who assumed she was transgender.
Speaking with The Advocate, Morton said she had entered the store restroom on February 19, along with her ex-girlfriend, who had handed her a tampon, when two male deputies stormed in, shining flashlights into the stall where she was using the toilet. They demanded that she exit the restroom.
“They were flashing lights on our feet and saying, ‘You have to get out of here. You have to come out. We need to talk to you,'” Morton said. “I’m telling them, ‘I’m still using the restroom. I’m sitting down, I’m peeing. What is the issue?'”
When she exited the stall, Morton lifted her shirt, exposing her breasts, to prove she was not a man. But one deputy continued to question her appearance, telling her she “looked like a man.”
At one point, Morton pulled out her phone and began recording, posting a 9-second video clip to TikTok of the deputies questioning or talking to another woman — who may be Morton’s ex-girlfriend, though it’s unclear — in the restroom. Morton is heard saying, “They came in here in the girls’ restroom because I’m a girl, and they didn’t think I was a girl, so they tried to come take me away.”
That clip has been viewed over 3.7 million times.
“The only men in the women’s restroom were the cops,” Morton told The Advocate. “That’s what makes this so frustrating. If you think a man is in the restroom, why send male officers instead of female officers?”
Morton intends to report the incident, which she believes was prompted by a Walmart cashier calling authorities. She said she noticed the cashier watching her closely before she entered the restroom.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that the incident is under investigation.
“The Pima County Sheriff’s Department takes all citizen complaints seriously and investigates each and every one of them,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told The Advocate.
When asked whether officers are frequently called to the Walmart location for shoplifting or drug-related calls, Nanos declined to comment and said he would answer questions once the investigation is complete.
A Walmart representative told the magazine that the company was aware of the situation and cooperating with the police investigation.
Morton told The Advocate that she hasn’t used a public restroom since the incident. She said that while she usually ignores when people misgender her due to her masculine appearance and manner of dress, “this was different.”
“This wasn’t just someone calling me ‘sir’ — this was law enforcement trying to remove me from a bathroom where I had every right to be,” she said. “I’m afraid now. It’s already enough being Black and facing discrimination. Now I have to worry about being harassed just for needing to pee?”
Arizona does not have any laws restricting what restrooms people use based on their gender identity, and even if there were such a law in place, it would not have applied to Morton.
Nonetheless, the incident underscores how such laws would, in practice, be enforced by police — with cisgender women being profiled or targeted for harassment for failing to adhere to traditional gender norms or conform to stereotypical forms of gender expression.
The Morton incident also highlights the zeal with which conservative politicians have sought to place restrictions on restroom access in the name of rolling back transgender rights. According to the Movement Advancement Project, at least 16 states have some form of a law restricting the ability of transgender individuals to use facilities aligning with their gender identity — although most of those laws primarily apply to K-12 schools, colleges and universities, or government-owned buildings.
Thirteen states also have laws that define “sex” in such a way that can potentially impact a transgender person’s ability to use gender-affirming facilities, while Utah and Florida have laws criminalizing such behavior.
Last month, Republican federal lawmakers overreacted to an alleged report of a male in the women’s restroom of the U.S. Capitol, barging into the restroom only to discover that there was no male — and no transgender person — inside.
Republicans have been particularly adamant about banning transgender females from female restrooms — especially following the election of U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride to Congress — with U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and others pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson to institute a policy for restroom and changing facilities on Capitol grounds, which requires individuals to use only those facilities that match their assigned sex at birth.
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