Shower rooms have changed a bit. So have Christian associations.
In Port Townsend, Washington recently, Julie Jaman finished a swim at the Mountain View pool. While soaped up in the shower, she heard the voice of a man. She looked out and was surprised by what she saw — allegedly (apply that word to everything below).
From the Port Townsend Free Press:
[O]n Tuesday, July 26, 2022, [Julie] was swimming when the…aquatics manager, Rowen DeLuna, told her that a group of children were going to use her lane. [She]…went to the women’s showers. There are no private showers. They are all clustered in a common area that requires users to step into and out of the showers in the view of others. The light curtains on each shower stall do not provide much of a shield from the eyes of others. One can see out as well as in.
While lathered up in the shower, [Julie] heard a…low male voice. She saw a male in a woman’s swimsuit very close… Julie says he was “looking at the little girls as they were taking off their suits.” She remembers about four little girls being in the room.
[She] says she was shocked. “There were gaps in the curtain, and there I was — naked, with soap and water on me — and this guy, right there very close to me.”
She called out a question: “Do you have a penis?”
“He said, ‘That’s none of your business.’ That’s when I told him, ‘Get out of here, right now.’”
Julie then noticed Aquatics Manager Rowen just outside her stall. Julie insisted, “Get him out of here.”
That didn’t go as she’d hoped:
[Rowen] responded…”You’re discriminating, and you can’t use the pool anymore. And I’m calling the police.”
[Julie] remembers standing there stunned, naked and wet.
Curiously, the pool is run by the Young Men’s Christian Association. And as it turns out, the shower-room male — named Clementine — was a Y worker.
[Clementine] did not display anything identifying him as a YMCA employee. [Julie] does not remember getting dry and dressed. She exited the showers and entered the foyer to leave the building.
From the door, Rowen declared, “You have not abided by our principles and values.”
[Julie] said she raised concerns about her loss of dignity and being stripped of her sense of safety when she was in a vulnerable state. She raised concerns about the little girls being naked in front of [Clementine]. [Rowen] dismissed her concerns by sharing a past trauma of her own.
Another Y staffer appeared and informed Julie that she couldn’t leave. Rowen said the same.
Julie had a different idea, which she concisely communicated:
“Bulls**t!”
She announced she was going to the cops, and she did just that. At the station, she filed a report with Officer Titterness.
Additionally, she called Olympic Peninsula YMCA CEO Wendy Bart. According to Wendy, a Y staffer claimed Julie had said to Clementine, “You’re going to stick your [flipping] penis in those little girls” (Julie denies the charge).
Furthermore, Wendy explained that the posted “Pride” signs should’ve notified everyone that males could enjoy time in the women’s shower.
On August 1st, Julie — who is 80 years old and a 35-year Y member — appeared before the Port Townsend City Council (see the video here):
She had a lot to say:
“In an effort by the city and the YMCA to apply the neocultural gender rules at Mountain View pool dressing/room shower facilities, women and children are being put at risk.
“My experience while showering after my swim was…seeing a man in a women’s swimsuit watching little girls pull down their bathing suits in order to use the toilets… I reacted by telling him to leave. And the consequence is that I have been banned from the pool.
“There is no signage informing women the shower room is now all-gender… Nor have parents been informed of what they can expect… The Y has not provided any dressing/shower room options for women who do not want to be exposed to men who identify as women.
“It is unconscionable that the YMCA would instigate these new policies without clearly informing pool patrons and parents. … [T]hey’ve usurped the binary designations…with no choices. The staff seems to have received little professional training on how to handle reactions to such a radical culture change — particularly for the most vulnerable, older female patrons, and children who may be exposed to inappropriate behavior, (which violates) the dignity and safety of unsuspecting women who have trusted…these facilities for many years. This is not right. The YMCA, the city, the police and sheriffs, the parents, the professionals who assist victims of voyeurism, peeping toms, pedophilia and assault need to come together to figure out how to make the new policies work for all pool patrons, not just one group.”
“It is ironic,” she added, “that women who discriminate when a situation threatens their safety or their children — a message from our ancestors — are now accused of discrimination as if they have made someone else a victim.”
She told the council that intelligence and wisdom should be employed when “applying the rules,” and that policies must be “respectful and inclusive.”
It seems to me that Julie’s expectations are ill-conceived. Society is going to necessarily pick a side, and it appears our institutions already have. It is unrealistic to think that all facilities will construct a third shower/locker room. If males can be women and females are maybe men — and if “inclusion” means agreeing to such — there cannot exist a world in which both soapy Julie showers exclusively with people with vulvas, and societal showering policies are “inclusive.”
We have reached a fork in the road. If Americans allow for the revolutionary turn, women like Julie will have to get used to showering with penises and a mutual plain view — provided their initial resistance doesn’t get them banned.
The fact that they banned her, for saying something that an employee “SAID” she heard,, without any investigation. I’m sure there were plenty of witnesses. But NO, the YMCA couldn’t give a flying ship about the truth.
The tables will turn.
This was the exact reason the Equal Rights Amendment got defeated back in the 1970s. People realized that the goal of the bill was to eliminate gender distinctions in public facilities: restrooms, fitting rooms, changing rooms, showers, etc. The left never gives up on a bad idea, they just try new methods to implement and enforce them.
After enjoying years of time in the YMCA across the country, I have made my last visit to this organization. YMCA should be run by a national headquarters and not the state. Until they produce a directive Disallowing this “invasion ” of female bathrooms ans showers by “misguided” men, YMCA should be boycotted by all Americans. I won’t go back!
I reserve the right to beat the tar out of anything with a penis if they enter a women’s bathroom with my daughters inside. A father has a right to defend their children. I honestly don’t care what you call yourself. I honestly don’t care if you have a penis and think you’re a women, but if you have a penis, go to the men’s room and stay out of the lady’s room!