An 80-year old woman who expressed extreme discomfort and fear about a male in the women’s shower area of the Mountain View Pool was permanently banned from using the facility.

For 35 years the Mountain View pool—a City of Port Townsend facility now operated in partnership with the Olympic Peninsula YMCA—and its women’s showers had been a safe place for her. But not that day. The woman had to stand naked in the presence of the male, a YMCA employee, despite her pleas and demands that he leave. She was also very concerned that this male was watching little girls as they peeled off their swimsuits. Another YMCA employee called the police on the woman. The woman was initially instructed by a Y employee to leave, but then prohibited from exiting the building by two YMCA employees. She exclaimed, “Bullshit! I need the police!” and left to report the incident immediately to the Port Townsend Police Department.

Julie Jaman has been in Port Townsend for about 40 years. She has been swimming at the Mountain View pool for most of those years. She raised children in Jefferson County. She has been a Democratic voter. She describes her gender identity and expression as rooted in her biological sex. “I am an XX woman,” she says, referring to the chromosomal characteristics that make women women and distinguish them from men. Her gender identity and expression, she says, have been shaped by eight decades of womanhood and life experiences that implanted feelings, reactions, intuition and wisdom, strengths, vulnerabilities and preferences.  Jaman is a woman whose gender expression and identity recoil at being naked against her will in the presence of strange males and whose mothering instincts (“the momma bear in me,” she says) surfaced when she saw a man in a woman’s bathing suit looking at nearly naked little girls.

Julie Jaman’s Story

Jaman says that on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, she was swimming when the Y’s aquatics manager, Rowen DeLuna, told her that a group of children were going to use her lane. Julie left the pool and 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 Jaman heard a definite, low male voice. She saw a male in a woman’s swimsuit very close to where she was showering. 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.

Jaman 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. I asked, ‘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.’”

Jaman then noticed that DeLuna was also there just outside her shower stall. Julie said to her, “Get him out of here.” DeLuna responded, according to Jaman,”You’re discriminating and you can’t use the pool anymore and I’m calling the police.”

Jaman remembers standing there stunned, naked and wet. “There was no concern for what I was experiencing.” DeLuna never asked “if I was okay.” Nobody explained anything to her. The male in the woman’s swim suit did not display anything identifying him as a YMCA employee. She does not remember getting dry and dressed. She exited the showers and entered the foyer to leave the building.

DeLuna was at the door and told her, “You have not abided by our principles and values.” Jaman said, “I am respectful, but I’m not a Christian and I don’t follow Christian ideology.” She told us she was referring to the “C” in YMCA which once stood for “Christian”. Jaman 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 the male in the swimsuit. DeLuna dismissed her concerns by sharing a past trauma of her own. Another YMCA staff member then appeared and told Jaman that she could not leave. DeLuna said the same thing, either before or after this other person. Jaman said, “Bullshit! I’m going to the police right now. I want help and I need it immediately.”

The police department in the Mountain View Commons complex is just a few yards from the door to the pool. Jaman filed a complaint about what had happened and was told she would be called. Port Townsend Police Officer Marc Titterness called her and she told him what happened.

Jaman also called Wendy Bart, the CEO of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA and left a message. They were able to talk later that day.  Bart said she had talked to her staff and stood by their actions, including banning Jaman from ever again using the pool. Bart said a staff member told her that Jaman said to the male in the woman’s swimsuit, “You’re going to stick your fucking penis in those little girls.” Jaman adamantly denies saying any such thing.

Ms. Bart told Jaman she assumes the posted “pride” signs indicating the Y welcomes all people is adequate for women to know that crossdressers and men who identify as women will be using the women’s dressing/shower room. In a written comment to the Port Townsend City Council, Jaman stated:

“The YMCA should immediately post clear signage indicating the existing dressing/shower rooms will be used by the opposite sex who gender identify differently. Also, all parents who send their children to YMCA programs should be informed that men who identify as women are allowed to accompany little girls into the dressing and bathroom areas.”

“This is unbelievable,” Jaman says. She says she did not sleep for days following the incident.

The YMCA’s Side of the Story

We have asked Bart, DeLuna and Clementine Adams to state what they say happened. Adams, a first year college student, is the male who was in the swimsuit and in the shower area while Jaman was naked. We let them know that we always publish verbatim and in full every word written to us in response to questions. None of them have responded to telephone calls or Facebook messages.

Police Call Records Support Key Parts of Jaman’s Story, are Vague on Others

Officer Titterness summarized his conversation with Jaman in a police call report obtained by the Free Press. He says that “Julie,” as he refers to her, was using the “restroom” and “heard a man’s voice and observed what appeared to be a man in a female bathing suit assisting a small female child.” Jaman became “very triggered” and “had an emotional response to a strange male being in the bathroom and helping a young girl take off her bathing suit.” Officer Titterness and Jaman “had a long discussion about the complex issue.” [Jaman states she did not claim to see any touching; see author’s note at the end of the article.]

The report we obtained also records calls made by someone from the YMCA who refused to identify themselves. The anonymous caller told the police that “Clementine was in the bathroom with a child in the day camp and Julie asked if she had a penis and started screaming at her to get out.” In another call, the anonymous caller said that “Julie” has “been asked to leave and is refusing.” Another call from the same person was recorded as Julie “was screaming at employee and calling names and refusing to leave.” Nothing appears in the contemporaneous call records about Jaman saying anything like what the YMCA’s CEO says was reported to her sometime after the incident.

A Word on Words: He, Her, Trans, Male, Female, Man, Woman

What Jaman saw is what will be described here as “a male in a woman’s swimsuit.” How Adams sees himself does not alter the physical facts in the shower room on that day. Jaman was very upset at finding herself naked in front of a male in a woman’s swimsuit, and seeing this male looking at little girls in various stages of nudity. Adams was not excluded from the facilities. It was Jaman who was told to leave when she expressed her gender identity, sensitivities and vulnerabilities. State law imposes obligations upon and prohibits actions by the Y and its employees; state law imposes no duty upon Jaman to overcome or hide her concerns, fears and humiliation about being suddenly naked, without consent, in front of a male unknown to her in a place she had considered safe for more than 30 years.

What is a woman? Adams declared himself to be a woman in March of 2022 according to his Facebook page; Jaman has been “an XX woman” for eighty years since the moment of her birth. To describe Adams as a woman would be disrespectful to “XX women” shaped by immutable biological blessings and their life’s journey, joys, struggles and wounds as a woman.  Anything less implies there is nothing all that special and profound about womanhood. Uttering the word “woman” cannot change biology nor instantly give a biological XY chromosomal male the intuition, strengths, vulnerabilities, emotions, powers, and wonderous, incomparable gifts unique to those astounding and amazing human beings who are, in fact, women.

The YMCA’s Violation of Washington State Law Against Discrimination of the Basis of Gender Expression or Identity Protects Jaman

WAC 162-32-060 states that all public accommodations “shall allow individuals the use of gender-segregated facilities, such as restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms and homeless or emergency shelters, that are consistent with that individual’s gender or expression or gender identity. In such facilities where undressing in the presence of others occurs, covered entities [like the YMCA] shall allow access to and use of a facility consistent with that individual’s gender expression or gender identity.”

Julie Jaman’s gender expression is that of a woman in the traditional sense, the sense understood by most of her generation and all past generations until a few people have attempted fairly recently in human history to erase that identity by asserting it can be claimed by declaring oneself to be a woman. Jaman’s gender expression and identity recoils at and rejects appearing naked in front of men in public restrooms or showers, or seeing naked men in similar places, all without her consent and against her will. In this way, it is similar to a sexual assault, though Jaman has not used that terminology explicitly. For her it is palpably wrong, humiliating and threatening. This gender expression was strongly displayed when she was “triggered” and lost her sense of safety upon finding a male in a swimsuit just a few feet from her while she was naked during her shower.

This law is not a law exclusively for those humans who identify themselves the opposite gender of their biological sex. It is not so limited by its language. It is a law that protects ALL gender expressions and identities, including those of Julie Jaman. It prohibits the YMCA from denying use of its facilities to even the most puritanical, unyielding, judgmental, heterosexual, even bigoted male or female to the same extent such discrimination would be illegal against an inconsiderate male or female expressing their sexuality as other than their biological gender. Jaman’s discomfort and concerns are entitled to the same unquestioning deference and response as it would have to grant anyone asserting their gender expression or identity.

She had never before in her experience been subjected to, against her will, being in the presence of a male while naked in the Y’s showers. The first time it happened, and the first time she vocally expressed her gender identity, the Y called the police and has forever now denied her use of this public accommodation. Julie Jaman was under no legal obligation to surrender the sensitivities and preferences that spring from her gender identity. The state law applies to the YMCA and its employees, not to her.

Instead of ignoring and condemning Jaman’s gender expression, Y employees DeLuna and Adams were legally obligated to accommodate her gender expression and related preferences. They should have acknowledged and honored Jaman’s preference that Adams grant her privacy by removing himself, at least until she was dressed. DeLuna and Adams have not responded to our questions as to why they acted as they did instead of allowing Jaman to use the facility she had for decades been using in a manner consistent with traditional gender expression and identity.

State Law Recognizes the Legitimacy of Expressions of Concern and Discomfort

WAC 162-32-060(2)(a) states “If another person expresses concern or discomfort about a person who uses a facility that is consistent with that person’s expression or gender identity, the person expressing discomfort should be directed to a separate or gender-neutral facility, if available.”

This is what Julie Jaman is asking for now. The Legislature legitimized such concerns by providing a procedure for addressing them. Jaman believes that if biological males will be in the women’s shower room—where there is no privacy—then the YMCA should provide a separate or gender-neutral facility for women (or men) with gender expressions and gender identities that experience discomfort, insecurity and humiliation from as the result of being naked in front of unknown persons of the opposite sex, or being exposed to their nakedness.

I asked Erin Hawkins, who is identified as the YMCA’s person for marketing and communications, what the Y is doing now to protect the dignity and gender-based sensibilities of someone like Julie Jaman. Hawkins said such a person should do their best to wrap themselves in a towel and deploy the shower curtain while washing. She acknowledged that the shower area is not private and had no answer for how someone like Julie Jaman would be shielded from a male exposing his genitals. As for employees like Adams, she said, the Y provides separate dressing and shower facilities.

Protest and Obfuscation

Jaman and supporters held a protest outside the Mountain View pool on Monday, August 1, 2022. They argue that in 2021 the YMCA promised, quoting Y literature, “the addition of family changing rooms/all-gender bathrooms…” but instead “took over the traditional binary areas” to accommodate individuals with gender identities different than their biological gender. Jaman and her supporters want the Y to provide three separate dressing areas: men, women and gender-free.

After the protest, a large number of concerned citizens also addressed City Council that evening. Though they don’t address the state law in their list of demands, the Y could not require a man in a women’s swimsuit to use a gender-neutral room, but it would be available to resolve conflicts between gender expressions and identities. A male in a woman’s swimsuit could show respect and compassion by using the alternative area voluntarily instead of forcing himself and his preferences on non-consenting women, and vice versa. At least there would be an option to resolve conflicts.

Trans activists who organized a counter protest have been trying to tear down Jaman as a bigot, though she is only asking what the trans people they advocate for have been asking: a place that fits her gender expression and identity where she can be herself and feel safe and dignified. The activists are trying to make the question one of an attack on trans people instead of a plea by Jaman and other women with similar gender expressions and identities to have their rights equally recognized and served by the YMCA. As the sign of one of Jaman’s supporters said, “Women’s rights are human rights.”

What is becoming clear in the attacks on her, as Jaman wrote to us in an email, “It seems everything is about them. No one else’s needs matter.” The Y and the trans activists are demanding that women like Jaman surrender their gender expressions and identities, change who they are and their gender-based emotions, values and sensibilities, in order to accommodate people such as Adams.

Jaman says she is considering her options, including pursuing legal remedies for violation of her rights. As things now stand, despite the Y’s pledge of inclusivity and respect, its facilities are not a place where everyone can feel safe and assured that their dignity is being respected.

A facility like the Y must take at face value a person’s assertion of their gender expression or gender identity. Washington’s law on nondiscrimination in use of public facilities does not permit questioning the basis for a person’s preference for facilities consistent with the asserted gender expression or identity.  A man dressed as a lumberjack, or in a cut off shirt to revealing massive biceps, who comes across as very macho and stereotypically masculine, may use the women’s facilities. If questioned, he need only say they are at that moment consistent with how he identifies—even if this is but a ruse so he can gratify himself by seeing naked women and children or gratify himself by exposing himself to them.

If a women who identifies as a man objects to biological males sharing the same showers with her (asserting to be comfortable only around people with their same gender expression and identity or women in general), the YMCA must allow them use of a space consistent with that preference. Just as a man who identifies as a woman need not substantiate feelings and objections to using a shower or bathroom inconsistent with who they say they are, Jaman need not undergo cross-examination in the assertion of her feelings of invasion of privacy, humiliation, vulnerability and fear. In the next installment, we will, though, examine the justification for concerns about biological males in women’s facilities. These are not frivolous concerns. We will also report on an extraordinary, impassioned session of Port Townsend’s City Council where both sides of this controversy shared their views.

[Author’s note: The police records say that Jaman reported seeing the male in the woman’s swimsuit “helping a young girl take off her bathing suit.” That would have required some physical contact. In comments to the article Jaman says, however, she did not see any physical contact, but saw the male in the woman’s bathing suit looking at 4-5 young girls pulling down their swimsuits. The use of the word “touching” in the original posting of this article was based on the police report of the interview with Jaman. That word has been deleted at Jaman’s insistence. To her credit, she wants the story reported as accurately as she can recall events.]