TWIBS: Musk’s X Supports Nonconsensual Bathroom Pics
A Texas woman has decided the law doesn’t apply to her, and social media website X has declared that they agree.
by Aly Gibbs
This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s longest running column! Every Friday, Aly Gibbs digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
Here’s a story about a bigot who thinks she’s above the law, and a culture war so hopelessly toxic and absurd that a social media company believes it should be allowed to intervene in a court of law on behalf of a woman who violated a stranger’s right to privacy.
In May of 2023, Michelle Evans, chairwoman of the Williamson County Republican Party in Texas, “visited the Texas Capitol to observe the debate in the Texas House of Representatives over Bill 14,” a senate bill that ultimately passed and banned necessary and lifesaving healthcare for transgender minors in the state. On a trip to the restroom, Evans and her noxious buddies encountered a trans woman washing her hands, and verbally accosted her.
During the confrontation, somebody in Evans’ group took a picture of the trans woman while she was in the bathroom, and posted it to Facebook. Evans, sensing an opportunity to loudly be a bigot, quickly reposted the picture to Twitter with the caption: I’m sure it won’t be the last time today, but just had to tell this man to stop using the women's restroom at the Capitol. There are young girls here on school field trips. Take your delusion and fetish TF out of our spaces.”
Such bravery. Everybody clap.
Later that day, Evans was approached by Department of Public Safety officers, who detained her and told her that she was only free to go if she surrendered her phone to them as part of an investigation. After the fact, she was informed that Travis County District Attorney José Garza’s office was investigating her pursuant to violations of Texas Penal Code Chapter 21 Section 15, which disallows recording or photographing Texans in places where they might have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as… bathrooms!
In a suit filed against Garza on June 23, 2023, Evans alleged that her First Amendment rights are being violated by this investigation, and that this section of the Texas Penal Code is inherently unconstitutional. The complaint dramatically opines, “Is it a crime for a woman to tweet a photograph, taken and initially posted by another, of a male politician at the sink in the ladies’ room at the Texas capitol during a fierce debate on legislation prohibited [sic] transgender treatments for children? Or is such a tweet protected under the First Amendment?”
On December 9 of 2025, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said… uh, maybe? Maybe that’s a crime? The ruling says it’s “far from clear that there is a First Amendment right to capture and distribute an image, without their permission, of a fully clothed adult while in a public bathroom,” and allows that the Travis County DA’s office may continue their investigation into Evans to determine whether or not she violated the law and is deserving of criminal charges.
Here’s the twist of the century: X, formerly known as Twitter, is getting involved. On Monday, the official X account named Global Government Affairs announced that they would be stepping in to support Evans, saying, “X is proud to support the legal case of Michelle Evans. Ms. Evans faces potential criminal charges for reposting a picture of a male transgender activist using the sink to wash his hands in the women’s restroom in the Texas State Capitol in May 2023. Ms. Evans did not even take the photo. She merely posted it on X as part of political commentary on transgender issues. Yet, shortly after, the Travis County District Attorney launched a criminal investigation into her post.”
“The First Amendment protects Ms. Evans' speech,” the post drones on, “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.”
This isn’t the first time X has stuck their big corporate nose into affairs of law that shouldn’t be their purview. Last June, X sued New York state over a law that required social media companies to “disclose how they monitor hate speech, extremism, disinformation, harassment and foreign political interference.” Last February, they reached an agreement with the state of California after suing over a law that required social media companies making more than $100 million annually to disclose their content moderation policies. In April, X sued the state of Minnesota over a law banning the spread of deepfake political videos.
Suffice to say, Elon Musk’s Twitter is as radioactive in the real world as it is on the internet. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to (fingers crossed) their involvement in Evans’ case going nowhere, so that she can face appropriate consequences for her violation of privacy laws.
Aly Gibbs (She/They) is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
