Patt Johnson, pjohnson@dmreg.com A San Francisco minister with Midwestern roots is raising money to help a transgender inmate at the Polk County Jail.
Megan
Rohrer, a transgender Lutheran minister who was born and raised in
South Dakota, set out to raise $2,000 to post bail for (name redacted due to the preference of the individual), who goes by the name Meagan Taylor. Taylor, a 22-year-old
cosmetology student from Illinois, was arrested Monday at a West Des
Moines hotel and charged with possession of prescription drugs,
malicious prosecution and on an Illinois warrant.
As of
Saturday evening, Rohrer exceeded that goal and raised $2,173 for
Taylor. The new goal is to raise $3,731.20 to cover a $1,731.20 fine
Taylor received from Illinois, according the fundraising page.
Rohrer
said she didn’t know Taylor’s background or the circumstances of her
arrest, but she wants Taylor to be able to get out of jail, find a
lawyer and “make her own decisions about how to proceed.”
Taylor
is being held in the medical unit of Polk County Jail because officials
didn’t know whether to place her in the men’s or women’s section of the
jail.
Taylor was visiting Des Moines with a friend who
also is transgender, and they were staying at a hotel in West Des
Moines. Taylor told Register columnist Rehka Basu that she noticed the
staff “acting really funny” around them. Then police showed up at their
hotel room.
West
Des Moines Police report they were notified about “two males dressed as
females who checked into the Drury Inn,” and that “staff was worried
about possible prostitution activity.”
An officer noted
no prostitution, but Taylor gave a fake name with a Missouri ID. The
officer also found the prescription drugs spironolactone and
hydrochloride, which are diuretics, in an unmarked bottle. Taylor said
they’re part of her hormone treatments.
It’s unclear why
she had the Missouri license, or why that led to a charge of “malicious
prosecution,” an aggravated misdemeanor. Police also found out that
Taylor had an outstanding probation violation from Illinois, related to a
2010 conviction for credit card fraud. Taylor said she did her time for
that — she was 17 — but still owes $500 in fines.
She is
scheduled to appear in court Aug. 10, said Sgt. Vikki Palmer of the
Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Palmer said even if the $2,000 bond were
paid, Taylor may not be released because of the Illinois warrant.
Area residents are also showing support for Taylor as a group of nearly 20 staged a protest outside the Drury Inn on Saturday.
“We
are looking to hold the hotel and the police accountable for what they
did,” said Kaija Carter, one of the organizers of the protest. “Things
like this happen in Des Moines, they happen in West Des Moines, and they
need to come to an abrupt stop.”
The protestors
delivered a letter addressed to the West Des Moines hotel’s general
manager Kim Biery, listing five actions they’d like to see taken by the
hotel management. The demands include a formal public apology, financial
reimbursement for Taylor’s hotel room, cost of bail and cost of arrest,
as well as the management’s participation in a restorative justice
roundtable discussion.
Drury Inn staff declined to comment on the protest and the letter.
“Drury Inn
targeted (Taylor) just because of the way she looked,” said Tony Taylor,
who signed the letter. “That isn’t OK, so we’re putting them on notice
and we’re putting West Des Moines on notice.”
Rohrer, who
grew up in Sioux Falls and graduated from Augustana College there, said
her nonprofit group Welcome is an advocate agency for the homeless and
hungry, including those in the LGBT community.
She heard
about Taylor from a college friend who lives in Iowa and who has stayed
at the same hotel. “She was upset and wanted to know what we could do,”
Rohrer said. “Two thousand dollars is not that much to raise and I knew
we could rally to get (Taylor) proper legal representation.”
Rohrer said she has experienced situations similar to Taylor’s during her world travels because she is transgender.
Taylor’s story has caught the attention of the national LGBT magazine, The Advocate, which ran a story on its website Friday.
Contributions to Taylor’s fund can be made at sfwelcomeministry.blogspot.com.
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