A Utah man says he was attacked Sunday at his local Walmart by another man outraged that he’d taken his five-year-old daughter with him into the restroom, local TV station KSL reported.
As Christopher Adams told the news station, soon after he arrived at the store in Clinton, Utah to buy blinds and storage bins, both 7-year-old Kyler and 5-year-old Emery told him they needed to use the bathroom. Not wanting to leave either of them alone, he brought both children into the men’s restroom.
Adams said a man then entered the restroom and started verbally harassing him for bringing a girl into the men’s room, calling it “inappropriate” and “dropping the ‘F-bomb.”
He said the man assaulted him as he tried to escort his children away from the scene.
“When I turned back around, I got sucker-punched,” Adams told KSL.
A scuffle ensued and Adams said he managed to force his assailant out of the restroom.
Clinton Police Lieutenant Shawn Stoker told the news station that the man, who he did not identify, was cited for disorderly conduct at the scene. The city attorney also was looking into a possible assault charge, Stoker said.
Debates over gendered bathrooms have escalated in recent weeks as several states passed laws preventing transgender individuals from using facilities that align with their gender identity. Last week, a transgender woman was physically forced from the woman’s restroom at a Washington, D.C. grocery store by a security guard.
