As America Wakes Up From Woke,
PT Digs In Its Heels

by Annette Huenke | Apr 4, 2025 | General

Amidst recent reporting, here and in the Leader, on the looming collision course of the city’s increasing expenses and diminishing revenues, news leaked recently to the Port Townsend Free Press indicates that our fearless leaders are nowhere near applying the brakes on runaway spending for consultants.

Later this month, City Hall and the library will be closed for four-and-a-half hours for a compulsory DEIB training.

You may be as surprised as I was to learn of the fourth character tacked onto the end of the all-too-familiar Diversity, Equity and Inclusion label. That’s “B” for Belonging. More about all that later in this article.

Our streets are in deplorable condition — embarrassing, really. Our infrastructure is crumbling. For years, piles of our money have been thrown at “affordable housing,” none of which has yet to materialize, nor looks to be in the offing. With City Hall already limiting its days open to the public to Monday through Thursday, this required “training” not only means an additional loss of public hours, it is arguably another top-down driven, unnecessary and wasteful drain of city resources.

Who? What? When? And How Much?

The DEIB training will be conducted by Tacoma/Seattle-based Potential Unleashed Consulting on Wednesday, April 23rd. This won’t be their first appearance here. The city hired them for a 90-minute workshop in December last year, to begin city employees’ “learning journey.”

Here is the HR memo to staff for the April event:

23 Apr 11 AM (4h 30m)
Save the Date – City Training
RSVP
Hello all,

We are excited to continue our learning journey with Jahmad Canley from Potential Unleashed Consulting. Jahmad will facilitate an interactive workshop designed to help us continue our goal of building teams and cultures of belonging by:

• Examining the difference and linkage between invitation, inclusion and belonging
• Learning practical frameworks to help us be more intentional about creating belonging in our environments

City Hall and the library will be closed on April 23rd to allow employees to attend this workshop. This workshop is considered part of your workday, unless your absence has been approved by your supervisor.

We look forward to your participation as it will offer knowledge and tools to support both [sic] your personal growth, your professional development, and our team’s overall success.

Thank you for your continued commitment to excellence.

According to their Linkedin account, Potential Unleashed Consulting was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Seattle. The company has 11-50 employees and 5 “associated members,” one of which is their founder, Jahmad Canley. Articles and archives on their website do not date back further than 2020. This article referencing the Chamber of Commerce also notes the founder as Tacoma-based.

Their 90-minute and 4.5 hour workshops offer this boilerplate syllabus:

DEIB Foundational Workshop

We will design and facilitate training to ground all participants in a set of shared frameworks, common language, and initial skills to understand how the work of DEIB functions in society and within organizations.

Participants will:
•  Unpack and reflect on how race, gender, age, and other social identities set up all people to have different degrees of power and privilege in society.
•  Examine key “both/and” concepts that support authentic relationships across social and hierarchical power differentials.
•  Recognize the difference between blame and responsibility, and use that as a platform for accountable relationships.
•  Differentiate between racism, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression, and explore how different forms of oppression intersect.
•  Examine unconscious bias and its impacts of it [sic] on our culture.
•  Begin to examine how bias functions within society and within organizations.
•  Understand how our social identities give us different but equally significant roles in the work of DEIB, and how we can work together, strategically, to create justice and liberation.
•  Begin to develop a “journey mindset,” the understanding that becoming an organization rooted in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is a process that requires sustained commitment to a vision.

The 90-minute workshop in December 2024 cost $3,800 for the ‘training,’ $748.28 for lunch, and however much 90 minutes times 130± employees’ salaries and benefits add up to. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds were used to cover the “training” cost then.

The contract for the upcoming April event lists $7,300.00 for the vendor. Lunch will be provided by the city (taxpayers). Then we have the cost of 4.5 hours of 133 employees learning about oppression that does not exist in their workplace, instead of doing the city’s business. A rough guess at salaries, benefits and full versus part-time indicates the tab likely to be in the $20,000-$30,000 range. (I welcome anyone to sharpen their pencils on that.)

A Long and Winding Road

Diversity training in the workplace was an outgrowth of JFK’s Executive Order (EO) 10925, signed on March 6, 1961.

President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order 10925, which creates the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and mandates that projects financed with federal funds “take affirmative action” to ensure that hiring and employment practices are free of racial bias.

This order required education of federal employees to ensure they were in compliance with the new regulations. However, JFK felt compelled to spell out his intentions, lest they be misunderstood:

In a White House memorandum on the same day, he called for the elimination of any program that “(a) creates a quota; (b) creates preferences for unqualified individuals; (c) creates reverse discrimination; or (d) continues even after its equal opportunity purposes have been achieved.

Civil rights leaders meet with President John F. Kennedy in the oval office of the White House after the March on Washington, D.C. 1963. Library of Congress

The pressure on Lyndon Johnson to take it a step further during the ensuing tumultuous years was successful. Passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 went beyond JFK’s EO focus on federal funding proscriptions, expanding non-discrimination orders to restaurants, theaters, transportation and other public accommodations.

…it authorized the government to withhold federal funds from schools that had not desegregated in compliance with the 1954 Brown decision. In all, it contained 11 sections or titles. Title VI and Title VII are most important to the evolving connection between Civil Rights enforcement and affirmative action. Title VI covers discrimination in federally assisted programs, and Title VII covers employment discrimination in all large and medium-sized private businesses.  [source]

What was often referred to as the “soft power of affirmative action” gradually morphed into exactly what JFK warned about in his memorandum, with the imposition of quotas in the early ’70’s under Richard Nixon.

Thus, affirmative action evolved from a vague concept buried in an executive order, to a set of legal regulations and practices. The shift from “weak” to “strong” methods of policy enforcement, it is important to recognize, was largely the result, not of legislative action, but of decisions made in the executive branch of the federal government and in federal regulatory agencies… toward the goal of achieving a color-blind society, and as a necessary means of ensuring that Whites would not discriminate against Blacks…  [source]

Six decades later…

On June 29th, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court — siding with Students for Fair Admission — determined that, at least as far as college admissions are concerned, we seem to have come full circle to the vision for potential outcomes noted in JFK’s 1961 memorandum. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion of the court:

Because Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.

At the same time, nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.

Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin. This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.

Dissecting the Details of Woke Language in the Realm of DEIB

Diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging. We’re all familiar with the classic definitions of those common words. But do they mean what we think they mean when it comes to DEI?

D — It’s doubtful that anyone who lives in Port Townsend is opposed to seeing a broader representation of women and non-white people in government, or anywhere else. Gays and lesbians have been welcome here for decades. It’s unclear exactly when the “trans” activists hitched their wagon to legacy diversity, but this broadening of the definition is not seen as legitimate or welcome by much of the wider society. Immutable characteristics appear to matter to most people. Look no further than Rachel Dolezal, who lost her career and a lot more for pretending to be black.

E — There’s a critical distinction between equity and equality. Equality provides the same opportunity, rules and standards for all. Equity guarantees the same outcomes despite qualifications, effort and time invested. In this After Skool video, Equity, the Thief of Human Potential, economist and author Thomas Sowell explains how visions of “fairness” often go sideways…

If you want one or the other [equity or equality] you can go for it, but the one thing you cannot do is pursue both simultaneously. At least you cannot successfully do that.

I —  The standard definition of “inclusion” is “to be included.” That’s not enough for DEI activists. Dr. Peter Boghossian explains: “‘Inclusion’… has the common meaning of ‘all people are welcome’. But it also has the woke meaning of ‘a space that restricts speech’. How can everyone feel included if speech is allowed that causes members to feel offended, and therefore excluded? Not everyone can, or so runs the woke logic. Therefore, to be truly inclusive, speech needs to be restricted.”

Further, “inclusion” to the DEI industry includes literal “exclusion” — good old-fashioned segregation — where whites have been denied participation and opportunities due to their skin color. Reverse discrimination is still discrimination.

B — Belonging is a feeling. It cannot be measured. In the typical (of woke discourse) circular argument, belonging means one feels included. As I cast about the web for the logic of adding a synonym, of all things, to the alpha-string “DEI,” I came upon this:

Author Liz Fosslien differentiates the terms by describing diversity as “having a seat at the table,” inclusion as “having a voice at the table”, and belonging as “having that voice being heard.”

A nano-second ago, “having a voice at the table” meant that your voice would be heard.

The DEI Dilemma 

According to the New York Times on March 13, 2025, “So far this year the number of companies in the S&P 500 that used the phrase “diversity, equity and inclusion” in annual reports has fallen by nearly 60 percent from 2024…”

The DEI industry was recently estimated to be in the $8 billion range. Potential Unleashed’s two highest-profile clients, Microsoft and Amazon, are following the trend and backing away from their former commitments. In July, 2024, Microsoft cut the DEI cord:

In a surprising yet increasingly common move, Microsoft has quietly dismantled its team dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).  The decision, communicated via email to the affected employees on July 1, [2024] cited “changing business needs” as the reason for the layoffs.

On February 7, 2025, “Amazon’s annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for 2024 omitted a section included in the company’s prior annual report, which indicated Amazon has a focus on “inclusion and diversity” in hiring…”

The writing was on the wall before the 2024 election. This article from just a few weeks ago documents the pruning or shedding of DEI by 68 organizations with over 1,000 employees since 2023.

In her book of that same year, The Adversity of Diversity, co-authored with Mike Towle, award-winning political scientist Dr. Carol Swain drops the responsibility squarely in proponents of the ideology’s lap: “… companies and corporations cutting their DEI programs are doing it because they know those programs and trainings are useless. All they really accomplish is to keep conflict going because that’s exactly what their job is…” She continues “If heterosexuals and homosexuals, and Whites and Blacks and Hispanics, get along, there’s no need for a diversity officer…”

2023 looks to have been a watershed year for nudges away from the trend. Undoubtedly, the costly blunder by Anheuser-Busch of having wannabe-woman Dylan Mulvaney promote Bud Lite beer was a cultural turning point. Shortly afterward, the Biden administration’s macabre “Pride” celebration, which devolved into something that disgusted many Americans, compounded the insult by an order of magnitude.

…Rose Montoya (biological man living as a woman), who was one of the many people invited by the Biden administration, was recorded pulling down his dress and exposing himself while standing alongside two biological females living as men who were doing the same to show off their removed breasts.

Rose Montoya on the White House lawn, June 2023

The pendulum had swung too far. These misguided efforts at psychological manipulation have not gone down well with the vast majority of voters, many of whom turned out last November to say they’ve had enough of woke. The ascendancy of the aggrievement cult looks to be over.

A Cure in Search of a Disease

In the early 2000’s, my partner and I hired an African-American man to join our employees at the gallery we owned on Water Street. He also worked for April Fool and Penny, Too, and was universally loved by his co-workers and the community. He and I often spoke about racism, a matter I’d taken seriously from an early age. He never felt unwelcome in Port Townsend, he reported. He was just another one of ‘us.’ The city was so lily white, it was refreshing to see a brown face. Our gallery represented Native American and Canadian artists who were more likely to be honored than looked down upon.

Has something drastically changed in twenty years? Has a tide of bigotry and intolerance swept through and infected City Hall? Is there a cadre of city employees who staunchly refuse to use preferred pronouns? Unlikely.

Dissatisfaction with the representation of women and people of color throughout the upper tiers of all of society was not new in the first decades of the 21st century. The halls of congress itself have been a glaring example of the lack of diversity in our nation. The 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis set a ready torch to simmering frustrations coast to coast. The Black Lives Matter activist movement spawned by the 2013 acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, had found its new raison d’être (and millions in shadowy funding).

That summer of lockdowns, “social distancing,” and limits on gathering sizes for the majority of U.S. citizens saw dozens of city centers burned and looted by scores of rioters using Floyd’s murder as an excuse to incinerate — in many cases — their own communities. While legacy media, and the Biden administration, largely defended these violent crowds as “mostly peaceful,” damage to hundreds of cities was estimated to be well over a billion dollars. Meanwhile congress, police and college officials were “taking the knee” to demonstrate their virtue, or fealty, to the perpetrators. Thus they were emboldened to press for more concessions.

Many of those cities have not recovered. Most of the vandals were not prosecuted. Very soon, the country saw cities allowing looters to gang-rob downtown stores, promising no prosecution if the valuables stolen amounted to less than $1,000. Those claiming victimhood who victimize are shown limited sympathy by the law-abiding. These felonious episodes contributed to the public perception that the fruit of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and DEI — woke, in other words — had begun to rot.

Port Townsend saw its own BLM actions in 2020, with a willing and apparently guilt-ridden “progressive” white populace in full support. The BLM organizers went looking for their racists, but struggled in vain to find them in this community.

Likewise, a hate-filled mob with a number of violent members was summoned by local gender activists to a “Let Women Speak” rally at the Pope Marine park in August of 2022 (see here, here, here, here, here, here and here). Alas, despite the dishonest label applied by the city administration and legacy media, it wasn’t an “anti-trans protest.” It was a small group of females and their supporters standing up for the free speech and privacy rights of women and girls.

Where are the Metrics?

For many years, analysts have been attempting to qualify and quantify the benefits and risks of diversity training (DT). Does it actually further “justice and liberation,” an expressed goal of Potential Unleashed founder, Jahmad Canley?

Last November, evolutionary biologist Colin Wright penned an article for Reality’s Last Stand titled “Why was this groundbreaking study on DEI silenced?” His question was directed at the New York Times and Bloomberg, two legacy media outlets who are generally known for toeing the establishment line.

The research paper, Instructing Animosity:  How DEI Pedagogy Produces the Hostile Attribution Bias, was published Nov. 13, 2024. Colin Wright distills it here:

Through carefully controlled experiments, the researchers demonstrated that exposure to anti-oppressive (i.e., anti-racist) rhetoric—common in many DEI initiatives—consistently amplified perceptions of bias where none existed. Participants were more likely to see prejudice in neutral scenarios and to support punitive actions against imagined offenders. These effects were not marginal; hostility and punitive tendencies increased by double-digit percentages across multiple measures. Perhaps most troubling, the study revealed a chilling convergence with authoritarian attitudes, suggesting that such training is fostering not empathy, but coercion and control.

The counter-narrative issues raised by this study were apparently too hot for the big papers’ presses to handle. Their refusal to cover this news is not an aberration. It’s how we got here.

Another lengthy meta-analysis of available literature was published in the journal Annual Review of Psychology in 2022. The authors report:

In examining hundreds of articles on the topic, we discovered that the literature is amorphous and complex and does not allow us to reach decisive conclusions regarding best practices in diversity training. We note that scholars of diversity training, when testing the efficacy of their approaches, too often use proxy measures for success that are far removed from the types of consequential outcomes that reflect the purported goals of such trainings.

Taken as a whole, our review of the literature on DT reveals that, in light of the overarching goals of DT in these settings, the evidence regarding the efficacy of DT is for the most part wanting.

More importantly, perhaps, their review of the literature revealed a dearth of evidence that DT was solving an existing problem:

…measurements of systemic bias—such as minority representation, prevalence of workplace discrimination, and the promotion rates of historically marginalized employees—were largely absent.

As with the city’s training, the public is right to ask — why are we doing this now? Unless bias and bigotry are a frequently documented problem among city employees, taxpayers should not be funding this “journey.”

Dumbing Down is a Dumb Idea, Not a Solution

Racism and sexism have been a dehumanizing scourge around the planet for just about as long as we’ve been upright. These injustices won’t be remedied by more of the same, simply by trading places, censoring majority views, or shoving DEI struggle sessions down peoples’ throats. Counter-discrimination is backfiring badly, ultimately harming the very people it’s intended to help. Lowering academic standards has been a disaster.

There is growing pressure now to do away with SATs, GPAs and now even any shared conception of Standard English. What kind of world are we creating? In what way could this utter condescension possibly render a historically oppressed people suddenly equal?
— Thomas Chatterton Williams  [source]

The mean grade at Harvard and Yale, and many other elite schools, is A-; grade point average (GPA), 3.8. In 1960, the national GPA was 2.4.

Source: Report on Grading at Harvard College • By Elias J. Schisgall

We’re being told that objectivity, punctuality and math are racist (ironic, given that math was apparently birthed in Mesopotamia). Amorphous “feelings” are more legitimate than facts. Guess we can forget about mass transportation like buses and airplanes; they do run on schedules, after all. Should we be thinking twice about that next surgery? “Many have become weary of DEI in medicine, as deviations from merit-based practices can put patients in harm’s way.” The list of occupations that will endanger peoples’ safety if DEI continues to rule the day is long. Contemplate them for a while.

Blogger el gato malo (no capital letters is his personal gimmick) states it succinctly:

any system that is not consciously and deliberately a meritocracy will become an anti-meritocracy.

this is not up for debate. it’s just emergent fact. as soon as you put people in charge of anything for reasons other than “they are good at it” and make the desired outcome of a system anything other than “competence and achievement” you get a system that will focus on creating failure.

vitally, teaching needs to resume moving at very different levels. you cannot teach the best and brightest in a curriculum and pace that the 30th percentile can keep up with. you need to let them run hard and learn fast. it’s the core intellectual capital of america and stifling these students out of some misbegotten fantasy about “equity” is grossly unfair to them. this is why experimentation and leveling and standards based acceptances are so vital here and why DEI has so badly damaged once elite schools. you cannot run them for dimwits without sacrificing the bright lights.

Speaking of lights, there is one at the end of this tunnel — and no, it’s not a train. The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) is linking with City University of New York (CUNY) and willing students of North Carolina to kick off a promising program called Boost, which “stands out as an appropriate post-DEI measure that focuses on economic need rather than race…” The model has a history of success elsewhere, demonstrating notable increases in post-grad earnings, sustained full-time enrollment and completed 4-year bachelor degrees.

“Based on a program developed by City University of New York and promoted nationwide by Arnold Ventures, the NC Community Colleges Boost model is recognized as the gold standard in accelerated workforce development in higher education.” You can read more about that here.

——————————

What exactly is the problem that city administrators aim to address with costly DEIB training for all employees of the City of Port Townsend? Was it certain behavior that precipitated it? Is it simply virtue-signaling to their base? Perhaps the unquenchable social-engineering thirst of the devotees that inhabit that building during work hours?

I wonder how the employees feel about having to attend these sessions. By focusing them on a “journey mindset” to “create justice and liberation,” will the public be better served? Do P.T. residents believe DEI “training” to be a wise use of their tax dollars, considering all the rest of what needs fixing here?

It’s time for the city to get back to basics — doing the peoples’ business — FIVE days a week!

City and YMCA Brace for Court Battle
Over Julie Jaman’s 2022 Lifetime Pool Ban

by Annette Huenke | Jun 13, 2024 | General

On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 12th, attorneys for Port Townsend resident Julie Jaman filed a lawsuit on her behalf. The Center for American Liberty (CAL) registered the official complaint and demand for a jury trial in the Western District Court of Washington.

As we reported in March, legal action was threatened if the City and the YMCA did not meet demands for redress of Jaman’s grievances, including reinstating her pool privileges. The YMCA balked until early May, then declined to settle. The City never responded at all. From the law firm’s official press release:

“The City and YMCA’s failure to respond to Julie’s requests highlights their disregard for public safety,” said Harmeet Dhillon, CEO and Founder of The Center for American Liberty. “By prioritizing political ideology over the protection of children, they have set a dangerous precedent. As we pursue legal action, we demand accountability and a renewed commitment to protecting women’s privacy and civil rights.”

“After witnessing a disturbing incident in the women’s dressing room and raising concerns, I’ve faced a relentless storm of attacks and falsehoods,” Julie Jaman said. “Despite my four decades of community involvement, I’m left with no choice but to seek justice through the courts.”

The Center for American Liberty summarizes the lawsuit thusly:

BANNED FOR LIFE.

When Julie Jaman saw a man in a women’s swimsuit assisting young girls undress in a pool locker room, she was startled and shocked. She believed she may be witnessing a crime in progress.

 

The Port Townsend City Pool — operated by the local YMCA — has a policy that allows men who identify as women to use women’s private spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms. But the YMCA didn’t publicize the policy or warn the women using these facilities that they could be sharing the space with a man at any moment.

 

In the locker room, Julie was understandably concerned by the situation playing out in front of her. She confronted the man and asked him to leave. Within moments of this conversation, YMCA staff began berating Julie for her comments.

 

Instead of addressing Julie’s concerns, the YMCA immediately subjected Julie to a series of escalating punishments:

 

• YMCA staff told Julie that her objection to having a man in the woman’s locker room was “discriminatory.”
• Because Julie’s comment was “discriminatory,” the YMCA banned her for life from all facilities run by that YMCA branch.
• When Julie objected and attempted to explain her side of the story, YMCA staff called the police on her.

 

What began as an attempt to protect two young girls from exposing themselves in front of an adult male ended with a call to the police—to investigate Julie, not the man in the locker room.

 

Sadly, this type of injustice has become a common occurrence in today’s society. It’s a direct result of prioritizing adherence to radical gender ideology over protecting our fundamental rights.

 

Object to a man in the women’s locker room? Banned. Draw attention to the dangers of the bathroom policy? Silenced.

 

That’s why Julie is fighting back.

 

The Center for American Liberty filed a lawsuit against the YMCA and the City of Port Townsend on Julie’s behalf, asking the court to force the City to lift Julie’s lifetime ban. The City of Port Townsend and the YMCA punished Julie because of the content of her speech—because she spoke out after seeing a man in the women’s locker room. Julie deserves justice for the violation of her First Amendment rights and the emotional distress she’s experienced because of this ordeal.

And in her own words…

The written record shows that City Manager John Mauro was not the least bit interested in hearing Jaman’s version of the episode. (See lawsuit Exhibits 8-29 here.) The rush to judgment was immediate and uncompromising, following the arc of ideological narratives one now expects to hear from city hall. Ends justifying the means, City Manager Mauro and advisors swiftly determined that the City was obligated to follow Washington State law alone, forsaking concerns — if they were considered at all — for pragmatic child protection and the U.S. Constitution. It is there — on the constitutional grounds — that this battle will be waged.

The introduction of the lawsuit follows:

1. The City of Port Townsend, Washington (the “City” or “Port Townsend”) has an indoor community swimming facility called the Mountain View Pool (the “Pool”). As with most community pools, residents of this small city use the Pool to recreate and connect with others. But at this pool, patrons must forfeit their First Amendment rights before being allowed in. This is unconstitutional.

2. The City outsources day-to-day management of the Pool to the Olympic Peninsula YMCA (the “YMCA”), a local affiliate of the Young Men’s Christian Association. Although the YMCA is a private non-profit corporation, its operation of the Pool is state action subject to constitutional restrictions. Not only is the Pool government property, but the City remains intimately involved in its management, maintenance, and repair, partnering with the YMCA in that endeavor. In the YMCA’s operation of the Pool and the public messaging associated with the events at issue here, the YMCA and the City have failed to uphold their constitutional obligations as government actors.

3. Plaintiff Julie Jaman is an eighty-two-year-old resident of Port Townsend, where she has lived for forty-eight years. For much of her life, she has served as an advocate for women survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse. Until recently, she regularly used the Pool for recreational and therapeutic purposes.

4. That changed on July 26, 2022, when the YMCA summarily and permanently banned Jaman from the Pool. That day, Jaman was showering in the women’s locker room after swimming. While in the shower, she heard a male voice coming from inside the locker room. She opened the shower curtain and saw a male in a female swimsuit—an individual who was later identified to her as “Clementine Adams”—with two young girls as they were preparing to use the toilet. Adams was helping one of the young girls remove her bathing suit.

5. Jaman thought she was witnessing a crime in progress, so she spoke up as best she could under the circumstances: she told Adams to leave the women’s locker room. A YMCA staff person immediately entered the locker room, and Jaman asked the staff member to remove Adams. Instead, the staff person berated Jaman for her “discriminatory” statements toward Adams and told Jaman on the spot that she was “banned for life” from the Pool for objecting to Adams’s presence in the locker room.

6. As Jaman later learned, Adams was a YMCA camp counselor and identified as female. Unbeknownst to Jaman, (1) the YMCA’s policy was to allow patrons to use the locker room consistent with their gender identity irrespective of their sex, (2) Adams had the YMCA’s permission to be in the women’s locker room, and (3) Adams had the YMCA’s permission to assist the young girls in using the toilet.

7. Since the incident, Port Townsend officials and YMCA employees have conspired together to engage in a high-profile public relations campaign designed to justify Jaman’s lifetime ban, to smear her, and to make her appear to be bigoted and a serial harasser of transgender individuals. None of this is true. Jaman supports keeping women’s private spaces reserved for women, but she does not harbor hate towards anyone based on their gender identity, nor has she ever harassed anyone at the Pool or elsewhere. Yet that is exactly what Port Townsend and the YMCA have led the public to believe through their false and misleading statements. Like the YMCA’s operation of the Pool, this smear campaign was unconstitutional state action.

8. To this day, almost two years after the incident, Port Townsend and the YMCA have maintained the lifetime ban against Jaman from using the Pool.

9. Defendants’ actions against Jaman were both unlawful and shameful. When an eighty-year-old woman reasonably believes she is witnessing a crime being committed against young girls in a women’s locker room, the government’s reaction should be to gather all of the facts and learn what happened, not immediately take sides in an ideologically charged political debate. Defendants may not summarily punish Jaman for her speech in reaction to what she saw, nor may they defame her for speaking out.

10. Jaman simply wants to return to the Pool she has used for almost forty years and to be compensated for the deprivation of her rights. The Pool is particularly important to her now that, due to her arthritis, swimming is the best form of exercise available to her. In addition, she wants to continue recreating with her friends and fellow Pool patrons. She wants everyone at the Pool to feel safe and secure in sensitive places. And above all else, she wants her life back.

11. Defendants’ lifetime ban against Jaman, their smear campaign against her, and their refusal to allow her to return to the Pool represents the sad reality of constitutional rights and public safety in Port Townsend. Jaman brings this action to remedy this harm.

City Officials’ Presumption of Guilt

Jaman’s version of the initial exchange between her and Adams has been consistent from day one. She said no more than ten words to the young man in a woman’s swimsuit in the ladies’ locker room. Evidently, Rowen DeLuna — the staff person who berated Jaman for her “discriminatory” statements toward Adams, told Jaman on the spot that she was “banned for life” from the pool, and is named as a defendant in the lawsuit — and/or someone else from the Y felt the need to embellish. Jaman was accused of saying things that anyone who knows her would instantly see as inconsistent with her integrity and nature.

Reporting to his “Leadership Team” the day after the August 1st city council meeting where Jaman shared her experience, and many supporters expressed their concern with how the situation had been handled thus far, Mauro sent out a “note to staff” to set the stage — here’s the official story, we should have no deviations from it, beware of misinformation coming from ’the other side.’

City Manager John Mauro’s communication to staff dated August 2nd, 2022. From CAL lawsuit Exhibits 8-29; page 33.

So that’s that. No questions asked — of Jaman, that is. Here is what the Y said you said. Did you, in fact, say these things? No, that question was never posed to the accused. As kangaroo court a hearing of an event as could possibly be held.

It’s all too familiar in government today, when charges of misinformation are commonly cast by the true misinformers.

The staff member, Adams, did not “endure a barrage of unfair, disrespectful and offensive attacks.”

Jaman had no idea she might encounter a male in the locker room, nor that she was expected to use ‘family changing rooms’ if she wished to avoid exposing herself to such males — because the Y did not make this clear to patrons. Not through signage, announcements in the city newsletter, nor discussion with incoming pool users. Purposely? Perhaps, to avoid the controversy. Or maybe they hadn’t gone all in on the changes themselves?

Mauro continues the sermon with a third point, that being Port Townsend’s designation as a sanctuary city, “welcoming of all residents and our diversity.” He proceeds to launch sideways accusations at Jaman, suggesting she was “intolerant, unkind… fueled by fear, anger and hate.” Again, anyone who knows Julie Jaman knows these inflammatory charges are patently absurd.

Throwing Good Money After Bad

Mauro and his advisors spent $3,000 of our city’s precious treasure to hire a PR firm to help manage the debacle. They produced a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) bulletin that was posted on the city’s website. It, too, contained falsehoods, including repetition of the claim that Jaman had “made discriminatory and derogatory comments toward” Adams.

Their FAQ also stated that Jaman had engaged in a “documented previous pattern of disrespectful behavior” at the Pool, a defamatory allegation that was news to Jaman. No such “pattern” had ever been discussed with her by Y staff. No documentation was forthcoming when requested. It does not exist. At least it did not exist before ’the incident.’

Have these actors — obviously so willing to make false claims and character assassinations — been foolish enough to do a little creative backstory-building to cover their rear ends in what has turned out to be quite a serious matter? Let us hope not.

Councillor Libby Wennstrom and Mayor David Faber get (dis)honorable mention in the suit, both for their social media posts suggesting that Jaman was “bigoted and intolerant of transgender-identifying individuals,” with Wennstrom going further by insinuating that Jaman’s presence at the Y had potential to undermine the safety of trans-identifying people.

For greater details, read the lawsuit and the appended exhibits (1, 2). Defendants have 21 days to respond once the Court executes the summonses and the defendants are served with same.  We will report updates in the comment section as we hear of them.

The defendants in this case — and their partisans, too — would do well to pay heed to one of our more timeless proverbs, which has never had more relevance: Pride comes before a fall.

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Feature image used with permission, Praetorian Public Relations, Walnut Creek, CA

Lawsuit Looms Over City Mishandling of YMCA Pool Discrimination

by Annette Huenke | Mar 20, 2024 | General

The day they thought would never come arrived on Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, when the City of Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula YMCA received an unwelcome bit of news from a litigation team at the Center for American Liberty, representing longtime Port Townsend resident, Julie Jaman.

As reported by the national news website, the Daily Wire, the clock has run out on the YMCA’s and city’s dodging of responsibility for the debacle that ensued after Jaman was banned for life from the Mountain View Pool a year and a half ago.

Regular readers of the PT Free Press are familiar with the outrageous treatment Jaman (and eventually her supporters) faced in July and August of 2022. (Access our extensive reporting with the link following this article.)

According to the demand letter from the Center for American Liberty, “The City’s and the YMCA’s conduct violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution… and Washington law.”  The letter was addressed to City Manager John Mauro, acting City Attorney Kendra Rosenberg, and Olympic Peninsula YMCA CEO, Wendy Bart.

From the law firm’s website:

“The Center for American Liberty sent a demand letter to the YMCA and the City of Port Townsend on Julie’s behalf threatening imminent litigation if Julie’s lifetime ban is not immediately lifted. The City of Port Townsend and the YMCA punished Julie because of the content of her speech—because she spoke out after seeing a man in the women’s locker room. Julie deserves justice for the violation of her First Amendment rights and the emotional distress she’s experienced because of this ordeal.”

Though a relatively young enterprise, in practice since 2018, the Center for American Liberty is blazing trails as it defends parental rights, constitutionally protected speech and religious liberties.  They’ve emerged as a powerhouse in the woke arena of coercive “gender transitioning” of young children and teenagers, including the now nationally-recognized ‘detransitioner,’ Chloe Cole.

Page one of Center for American Liberty demand letter

Setting the stage

The 8-page letter accompanies over 200 pages of duplicative public records, many redacted — communications between city officials, the YMCA and the public relations firm contracted by the city to manage the mess they’d created by refusing to even consider Jaman’s version of the episode, devoted as they were to ideology rather than fairness and accuracy.

The demand letter references the unlawful ban of Jaman, provides a bit of factual background, and swiftly moves on to “The Locker-Room Incident.”  (The following are excerpted quotes.  For legal reasoning supporting them, please read the entire eight pages.)

On July 26, 2022, Jaman went for a swim at the Pool. After she finished, she entered the women’s locker room to shower and change. There were no signs warning patrons that the locker rooms were open to members of the opposite sex. In fact, the signage indicated that the locker rooms were sex segregated.

 

While in the shower, Jaman heard a male voice inside the locker room. When she pulled back the shower curtain to see who was there, she saw a biological male wearing a female swimsuit. The individual—later identified to Jaman as “Clementine Adams”—was watching two young girls who appeared to be about four to six years old as they were preparing to use the toilet. Adams was not wearing any form of identification indicating an affiliation with the YMCA.

 

Jaman was startled by Adams’s presence in the women’s locker room and believed that she might be witnessing a crime in progress. Jaman asked Adams, “Do you have a penis?” Adams responded, “None of your business,” after which Jaman said, “Get out of here!”

 

Within seconds, YMCA staff member Rowen DeLuna entered the women’s shower area and began berating Jaman. DeLuna did not inform Jaman that Adams was transgender, that Adams was an employee of the YMCA, or that the Pool had a policy allowing individuals to use the locker rooms that aligned with their gender identity. Instead, DeLuna informed Jaman that her speech toward Adams was “discriminatory,” that she was “banned for life” from the YMCA because of her speech, and that she could no longer set foot inside the facility.

 

In addition, DeLuna told Jaman to leave or she would call the police. Jaman told DeLuna that she too wanted the police involved so they could investigate potential misconduct. YMCA staff called 911 and asked for the police to escort Jaman from the premises. A recording of this call reveals that the YMCA staff told the police that Jaman was harassing YMCA employees and belligerently refusing to leave. None of this was true.

None of this was true.  It’s important to reiterate this statement from the law firm, and to highlight the effort by several operators within the city administration to carefully craft the narrative before it went public.

Example of redacted communications between the city and the public relations firm hired to provide damage control (page 31, Exhibit C).

More from the Center for American Liberty’s demand letter:

On August 11, 2022—in the wake of significant local and national media attention—the City released an official Q&A discussing the July 26 incident... In the Q&A, the City said — falsely — that Jaman had engaged in a “documented previous pattern of disrespectful behavior.” … The YMCA made similar false statements to the media.See Exhibit B (quoting YMCA’s statement asserting that Jaman had “repeatedly violated the [YMCA’s] code of conduct”). Despite multiple requests, neither the City nor the YMCA has explained this alleged prior misconduct.

 

Emails and other documents obtained through public-records requests reveal that in the weeks following the July 26 incident, City officials were intimately involved in responding to concerns within the community regarding operation of the Pool. This included what appears to be a coordinated effort involving Mayor David Faber, City Manager John Mauro, and City Councilwoman Libby Wennstrom, among others, working with the YMCA and Feary [sic] Public Relations — a crisis communications firm hired by the City — to develop a public response to the incident.

 

This public relations campaign included statements to the media, social media posts, the above-mentioned Q&A, and other statements by members of the City Council. See, e.g., Exhibits C–F. These statements labeled Jaman as hateful and bigoted and indicated that she had engaged in a pattern of conduct that violated the YMCA’s policies. None of this is true.

The First Amendment prohibits the government from retaliating against individuals for exercising their First Amendment rights... Moreover, the government may not discriminate against speech exercised on public property based on its viewpoint.

 

First, Jaman’s ban was in retaliation for her protected speech. When Jaman saw Adams accompanying two young girls in the women’s locker room and watching them while they undressed, she was concerned she was witnessing unlawful conduct.

 

To be sure, the government may, in appropriate cases, take action to protect its employees from harassing conduct of third parties. But Jaman’s comments did not come remotely close to the line of losing protection under the First Amendment or otherwise justifying the YMCA’s response.

 

By banning Jaman from the Pool based on her speech, the City and the YMCA retaliated against her for engaging in protected activity.

 

Second, the YMCA engaged in viewpoint discrimination on public property and acted unreasonably in banning Jaman. The government engages in viewpoint discrimination when it allows speech favoring one side of a debate but not the other.

The City and the YMCA also violated Jaman’s due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Due Process Clause prohibits the government from depriving an individual of fundamental rights absent due process of law…  Exercising First Amendment rights on public property is a protected liberty interest.

 

The YMCA banned Jaman for life immediately upon hearing her object to Adams’s presence in the locker room. It provided her no notice of its locker-room policy or that such objection would be deemed a violation of the YMCA’s conduct policies.

The City and the YMCA also violated Washington common law. The statements that the City and the YMCA published about Jaman were false and defamatory per se, and the City and the YMCA acted in reckless disregard of the truth, at least.

 

Further, the City’s and the YMCA’s coordinated public relations campaign against Jaman amounts to the intentional infliction of emotional distress…  And both the City and the YMCA were negligent in various ways, including but not limited to failing to warn patrons that persons of the opposite biological sex may be in sex-segregated locker-rooms… 

The City’s and the YMCA’s actions against Jaman were not only unlawful but also shameful. When an 80-year-old woman reasonably believes she is witnessing a crime against minors in a women’s showering area, the government’s reaction should be to gather all of the facts and learn what happened, not take sides in an ideologically charged debate.

 

Moreover, the public records obtained since the incident show City officials and YMCA employees engaged in a sophisticated and coordinated public relations campaign to smear Jaman and make her appear to be bigoted and dangerous to transgender individuals. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It is true that Jaman supports keeping women’s spaces reserved for biological women. But she does not harbor hate towards anyone based on their gender identity, nor has she ever engaged in harassment at the Pool or elsewhere. Yet that is exactly what the City and the YMCA have led the public to believe through their false and misleading statements.

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To view previous reporting on this topic, go to our home page at the Port Townsend Free Press. Sixteen articles have been published covering this topic, beginning with the August 2, 2022 “Mountain View Pool Punishes Woman for Her Gender Expression and Identity.”

Jefferson Healthcare’s Trans Mission —
Suicide Risk as Emotional Blackmail

by Annette Huenke | May 21, 2023 | General

“The transgender rights movement has gone well beyond seeking equal rights. It seeks to liberate women without their consent from the legal protections associated with birth sex and even from the recording of birth sex… I have changed my mind with regard to certain transgender demands, including access to women-only spaces, after listening to women. Men are rarely, if ever, affected by transgender demands, so it is easy to say ‘yes.’ We must always try to imagine ourselves in the changing rooms, hospital wards, and prisons of lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual women.”
Professor Robert Wintemute, original Yogyakarta Principles signatory

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In 1964 or so, my pal Leah and I hatched a scheme to outwit the dress code enforcers in our small elementary school in a rural farming community of southern New Jersey. As was demanded by sex stereotypes at the time, girls were required to wear dresses/skirts, all logic against that tradition be damned, not the least of which was cold autumns and freezing winters. The school featured a playground with a basketball court, baseball diamonds, swings, a big slide and old-fashioned monkey bars… everything an active kid could possibly want. What young girls didn’t want was other kids (or adults) seeing up our dresses.

Leah and I were rough-and-tumble girls with lots of brothers. We were as fast and strong as any of the boys at that prepubescent age, but modesty prohibited our participation in a sport we both loved — baseball. One day we appeared at school with shorts under our dresses, and proceeded to head out to the diamond with the boys. It wasn’t long before our ruse was discovered. That afternoon, we each carried a note home from the teacher to our parents. Our scheme fizzled out before the sun set that night.

A few years later, as a young teenager, again I was sidelined as spectator, enviously watching my brothers and their mates enjoy Little League baseball to their hearts’ content. To assuage my longing, my brothers allowed me to catch practice pitches behind the backstop. It would be some years before the 1972 Title IX civil rights law paved the way for females’ access to sports spaces that males had previously dominated. We didn’t want entry into boys and mens locker rooms and showers. We wanted to enjoy the commons, which our parents’ tax dollars incidentally helped fund to provide for healthy lifestyles.

I could not have imagined that I would live to see the day when males would be not only welcomed, but lauded, for insinuating themselves into women’s sports and private spaces. The banner supporting males identifying as females is being carried by many of the very same women who were themselves forbidden by institutional policies and patriarchal norms from participating in a full range of sports not so long ago. Now they’re facilitating turning Title IX inside out to accommodate what are fundamentally misogynist urges — the emotions of males are more important than the intrinsic value of women’s sports and the physical safety of females.

In 1967, the first woman to enter the Boston Marathon was attacked from behind by a race official as she was running with a group of men. Fifty-five years later, I and numerous other women were attacked from behind by a body builder who identifies as a woman, who was trying to prevent real women from speaking in public. Cowardice appears to be characteristic of these fellows, and even that is welcomed and celebrated by the woke contingent that has possessed our society in general — for the moment.

Pennylvania Quakers’ swimmer Lia Thomas (Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)

Lia (William) Thomas, the now infamous biological male swimmer who imagines he is female, was a mediocre competitor among his own sex. His fortune changed last year. The news was so shocking, it made headlines around the world. “Thomas ruffled feathers last season as the swimmer set pool, school, and Ivy League records. Thomas competed for three years on the men’s team and was ranked 462 as a male swimmer, but shot up to number one after being allowed to join the women’s team last season.”

What does it say about this man’s character that he never stood a chance placing tops among males, but would relish purloining valuable awards in competition against women?

This chicanery is occurring in many women’s sports these days — cycling, skateboarding, volleyball, weightlifting, track, rugby and martial arts — I’m sure I’ve missed some.

Sports are an important part of our culture — teaching confidence and team-building, providing physical exercise and valuable win/lose life lessons, and opportunities for modest to spectacularly lucrative career opportunities, to name a few examples. But sports shouldn’t dominate the discussion around the so-called ’transgender’ issue because of their popularity.  This article will consider other crucial aspects of the debate, including institutional collusion and identity-politics activists’ manipulation.

HEI Leader Award slide from Transgender Navigator Jackie Levin’s 2/28/23 Jefferson Healthcare Board of Commissioners’ meeting

Celebrating a decade of “gender-affirming medical care”

At the February 28th Jefferson Healthcare hospital (JH) board meeting, Patient Advocate/Transgender Navigator Jackie Levin presented a slideshow (pps. 71-80) that spoke in glowing terms of the hospital’s progress in the last decade promoting and supporting the ‘LGBTQIA community.’ JH first applied in 2013 for the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) Leaders award, sponsored by the American LGBT-interest activist group Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and has “achieved that every year since.”

Levin reported increasing numbers of people from the “transgender community” seeking medication and medical services providers:

We’ve done a lot with sponsoring events in the community and attending events in the community as well as bringing in physicians and other trainers for our staff, for our providers and we now have ten providers who are trained to help our transgender patients with their hormone replacement therapy. And we’ve got some real advocates in our OBGYN department. So it really feels like it’s really grown, we’ve made some strong connections with people in the community and I think that’s one of the things that’s really important.

An internal audit of patient charts was conducted last year, which Levin said “noted that legal sex is there… but somebody’s sex assigned at birth is [only] at 40% gender identity… pronouns are barely put in our Epic medical record, and so we’re going to be doing that for this year.”

Increasing complaints to the hospital about misgendering are particularly worrying:

Right pronouns are part of our access [to hospital services] — folks don’t feel seen if we don’t use their proper pronouns… It’s how we identify ourselves and if I mis-pronoun you, you’ll correct me and if I mis-pronoun you again, you may begin to wonder if I see you. And if I continue to mis-pronoun you, you’re gonna be wondering if you can trust me.

She paused to reinforce the importance of this convention:

Oh, I did want to add that there is a risk of, great, much greater, I mean like uh, 40% higher risk of suicide in youth if we’re not using the transgender persons appropriate pronouns.

That’s quite a distortion of the oft-cited, though poorly supported, claim that “transgender” people are at least 40% more likely to have attempted suicide in their lifetime than the non-trans population. For some time I have been curious about where that figure came from, and exactly which suicide statistics it referenced, so I set about to find out. More on that later… for now we continue our dive into JH’s keen interest in the HEI.

Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and party politics

HRC was founded in 1980. You may be familiar with the logo — a yellow equal sign (=) on a blue background.

Influence Watch, a project of The Capital Research Center, describes the organization this way:

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the nation’s largest LGBT-interest activist organization and a prominent force in left-of-center politics. Together with the affiliated Human Rights Campaign Foundation charitable arm and super PAC, HRC has built relationships with powerful mostly Democratic Party politicians and major corporations, and has taken a leading role in Democratic Party politics and left-leaning activism. The group has faced criticism from the left over the years for insufficient zeal in securing its social-liberal agenda. …

HRC has leveraged its position as the largest advocate for LGBT interests to pressure major corporations, law firms, hospitals, and local governments into implementing and expanding socially liberal policies, supporting HRC financially, and withdrawing support from conservative and religious organizations through implicit threats of low scores on its Corporate Equality Index, Healthcare Equality Index and Municipal Equality Index “scorecards.”

Writing for the Free Beacon on May 15th, 2023, Aaron Sibarium penned an edifying analysis of the insidious tactics employed by HRC to coerce compliance within U.S. hospital systems —

Meet the Healthcare Equality Index, the Human Rights Campaign’s scorecard for hospitals that purports to measure the “equity and inclusion of their LGBTQ+ patients.” The index, which uses a 100 point scale, is [in part] funded by Pfizer and PhRMA, the trade association that lobbies on behalf of large pharmaceutical companies…

To earn a perfect score, hospitals must display LGBT symbols, solicit and use patients’ preferred pronouns, and conduct trainings on LGBT issues approved by the [HRC], according to the scoring criteria. They must also provide the same treatments for gender dysphoria that they provide for other medical conditions—meaning a hospital that uses puberty blockers to treat precocious puberty cannot withhold the drugs from children who say they’re transgender. And though the index does not mention medical conscience exemptions explicitly, it does penalize hospitals for allowing “discriminatory treatment that is in conflict with their non-discrimination policy.”

Once again, here we find direct involvement by pharma shills in the development of policies that require use of their products, in a manner that closely resembles blackmail. Don’t want to play ball? No “points” for you, and we’ve got the budget to make sure your reputation suffers for it. HRC also receives funding from major labor unions, Planned Parenthood and the Soros Fund Charitable Foundation. HRC and its Foundation reported revenue in excess of $65.56 million in 2020. A lot of societal pressure can be brought to bear with those considerable sums. Author Sibarium continues, describing the extent of the arm-twisting:

The most coercive part of the index is its “Responsible Citizenship” deduction. Hospitals can lose as many as 25 points for any behavior the [HRC] deems “discriminatory,” an expansive category that includes statements made by hospital doctors and policies that restrict access to gender medicine, including puberty blockers.

Last year, for example, the [HRC] deducted points from two Texas hospitals… because they stopped using puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria but continued to use them to treat precocious puberty—the blockers’ original purpose.

That “amounts to discrimination against transgender youth,” the [HRC] argued in a press release.

What it really amounts to is a private organization’s social credit scoring system having potential legal impact, should activists get fired up and sue for not performing what HRC insists is “medically necessary affirmative care” such as hysterectomies and double mastectomies. “To cover mastectomies for breast cancer but not gender dysphoria … discriminates on the basis of diagnosis.” Wisconsin now requires their Medicaid agency to fund these procedures, the outcome of a 2019 court ruling.

Sibarium adds

Beyond the veiled legal threat, critics say the scorecard creates reputational incentives to defer to activists instead of medical science, which on transgender issues is increasingly in flux. Hospitals that do well on the index typically incorporate it into their marketing materials, issuing press releases about the quality of their LGBT care.

Our little hospital here in Port Townsend has been swallowed whole by this ideology.

The 40% myth

The most recent survey of gender self-identified persons was conducted in 2022 by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) — aka TransEquality — however its contents have not yet been distilled. Their latest published survey is now eight years old —

The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) is the largest survey examining the experiences of transgender people in the United States, with 27,715 respondents from all fifty states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. military bases overseas. Conducted in the summer of 2015 by the National Center for Transgender Equality, the USTS was an anonymous, online survey for transgender adults (18 and older) in the United States, available in English and Spanish. The USTS serves as a follow up to the groundbreaking 2008–09 National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), which helped to shift how the public and policymakers view the lives of transgender people and the challenges they face.

The 2008-09 survey (results published in 2011) pegged the lifetime attempted suicide rate at 41%; this latest 2015 survey, with more than four times the respondents, pegs it at 40%.

The 2015 summary also notes significant progress compared to the earlier survey in terms of community and family approval:

Respondents’ experiences also suggest growing acceptance by family members, colleagues, classmates, and other people in their lives. More than half (60%) of respondents who were out to their immediate family reported that their family was supportive of them as a transgender person. More than two-thirds (68%) of those who were out to their coworkers reported that their coworkers were supportive. Of students who were out to their classmates, more than half (56%) reported that their classmates supported them as a transgender person.

We are told that lack of affirmation of this group is causing a genocide. If that is the case, why has the significantly accelerating support for these people only yielded a one per cent improvement in that suicide stat? Could that figure be little more than hot air?

As with the ’08-’09 outreach, the 2015 survey utilized convenience sampling, a study design of the lowest quality with high bias probability. Respondents were self-identified. The survey was conducted by a highly-motivated activist group rather than an independent pollster, and hosted online by a consultant that “specializes in assisting education institutions in maximizing equity and inclusion…” (Survey questions can be found beginning on page 247 of the 2015 full report.)

A March 2023 peer-reviewed article titled “Suicide-Related Outcomes Following Gender-Affirming Treatment” speaks to the quality of the USTS, and other surveys like it. This is the most thorough review of the literature on the subject so far, revealing that shoddy research practices continually plague the field.  The author says “the literature to date suffers from a lack of methodological rigor that increases the risk of type I [false positive conclusion] error.”

This June 2022 study found:

a 14% increase in suicide rates among young people by 2020 in states that have a provision allowing minors to access care without parental consent relative to states that do not. Easier access to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones by minors actually exacerbated suicide rates.

Not to be deterred, Governor Inslee signed a new bill on May 9th that will allow minors to shelter within “host” homes while they seek “gender-affirming care,” without knowledge or consent of their concerned parents (who are termed “estranged” in this legislation).

When Transgender Navigator Levin invoked the trans lobby’s questionable approximation of 40%, she neglected to add the critical qualifier of “lifetime attempted” to the word “suicide.” Then she really upped the ante by crediting the simple factor of misgendering with causal relationship. This is no trifling error on the part of a hospital employee who was essentially educating administrators and board members about these matters. It’s reasonable to assume that participants of that board meeting went away believing that using wrong pronouns increases “trans” suicide risk by 40%. Levin’s interest in advancing the goals of “gender-affirming care” is undoubtedly well-intentioned, but clearly misguided by propaganda that gets further distorted with each retelling.

The age-old chicken and egg dilemma

According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP):

The majority of children and adolescents who attempt suicide have a significant mental health disorder, usually depression.  Among younger children, suicide attempts are often impulsive. They may be associated with feelings of sadness, confusion, anger, or problems with attention and hyperactivity.

Among teenagers, suicide attempts may be associated with feelings of stress, self-doubt, pressure to succeed, financial uncertainty, disappointment, and loss. For some teens, suicide may appear to be a solution to their problems.

A Gallup poll published this week reveals record-breaking depression rates across America. Twenty-nine per cent of adult respondents reported depression throughout their lifetime. That’s nearly one third of the country, and it doesn’t include the youth — America has a mental health problem.

I doubt I’m the only one who views the populations described above as ripe for influence by a well-funded lobby that tells them they can be happy if they become someone else. Social contagion is real, and peer pressure is tremendously powerful.

So which came first — the mental health disorder or the gender dysphoria?

TransEquality would have us believe that their “community” is uniquely persecuted — that discrimination, mis-gendering, bigotry, threats of violence and other forms of rejection of individuals’ perceived identities are to blame for their elevated suicide risk. But is that really the case? Their 2015 survey design does not enable a view from outside the lens of gender-identity victimhood.

We have no idea how many of the 40% who claimed to have attempted suicide in their lifetime

• did so completely unrelated to gender issues
• had pre-existing mental health issues that they were or were not being treated for
• were on psyche drugs that increase suicidal ideation
• were plagued by chronic health issues as a result of “gender-affirming” medications
• did so because their “transition” did not ultimately make their lives better
• did so because their “transition” required surgery after surgery — not at all uncommon
• did so because their “transition” left them with ongoing post-surgical pain, wounds that didn’t heal properly, or non-functioning new body parts — also not uncommon
• did so because of regret for what they’d done to their bodies

Encouraging children, teenagers and young adults to hyper-focus on sexuality, themselves, their subjective “identity,” their looks and how they’re perceived by others, promises cultivation of entitled narcissists who are the center of their own universe. We’re raising generations of perpetual adolescents.  Coddling in this manner is not the path to a healthier community.

Interestingly, the survey reports a 29% poverty rate among respondents, despite an 84.2% “some college” through M.D./J.D. level education. The fact is, not everybody is willing to work for a living. Association of gender identity with mistreatment in the workplace can be misplaced.

Employees who are hair-triggered for the next micro-aggression are less-than-ideal contributors, often too busy self-obsessing and keeping score to apply themselves fully to the task at hand. I’ve met some of them.

This is a huge problem in the employment sector right now. I’ve spoken to numerous employers who are deeply frustrated, and quite hamstrung, by the dearth of skilled, mature candidates to select from to sustain their businesses.

What will this scenario look like in twenty years?

All is not well in the land of the Gender Unicorn

Has “gender-affirming care” (GAC) made life better for the “transitioners?”

The Tavistock Centre gender clinic in the UK has been shuttered and is now facing class-action lawsuits from more than a thousand former patients, many of whom say they were pressured by the medical community.  Alarmingly, their female referrals had grown 5,000% in 7 years between 2010 – 2017.  (“Trans” proponents insist social contagion is not a thing.)  Lawsuits against GAC medical practitioners in the US are looming as well.

Lack of fully informed consent is one reason the ranks of “detransitioners” is growing by the day. The Detransition SubReddit page currently has 47.3k members.  This is a big problem for the ideologues pushing the “trans” agenda, similar to that presented by defectors from religious cults.

I will leave you with the memorable discussion below that took place at the Genspect “Bigger Picture” conference in Ireland just last month.  I’ll be back soon with a report on the local impacts of this movement’s oppressive institutional elements that have infiltrated healthcare, education and every other system that orders American society today.

“A panel of detransitioned young people spoke about their lives, the context in which they came to identify as transgender, about the process of falling for what Stella O’Malley called “perhaps the most bewitching line in the world: that you can be a different person.” They talked about their interactions with a medical system that ultimately harmed them when they needed help instead, and how the stories they told themselves about transition fell apart. They talked about what real help might have looked like. “I realized that I didn’t have to live up to those expectations [of womanhood],” one young woman said, “and someone should have told me that when I was 14.”

A 48.7% Tax Increase? Where’s the Fire?

by Annette Huenke | Feb 5, 2023 | General

The shell game

Over recent decades, municipalities have been shedding responsibility for various community services by creating what have been dubbed ‘junior’ or ‘special’ taxing districts. Rationales range from increased service demands to vague descriptions of ‘modernization.” Though we’re typically promised greater efficiencies at the outset, the net effect across the board has been the expansion of local governmental jurisdictions with ever-increasing budgets that further burden the taxpayers. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the state of Washington ranks eighth in the nation in states with highest count of special district governments.

Mechanisms exist for these special taxing districts to avoid significant new arrangements being put to the voters by employing the guise of “consolidations” and “interlocal agreements.” A number of these have occurred here in the last twenty years, not the least of which was the Port Townsend City Council-orchestrated “Pre-Annexation Agreement,” which essentially stacked the deck in favor of moving forward with plans local administrators already had in mind for East Jefferson Fire and Rescue (EJFR).

We’ve seen similar sleights of hand in every local agency in recent years. These shell games make it more challenging to watchdog revenue streams. If the city shifted funds that were originally earmarked for Fire/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to the general fund, who would be the wiser?

Getting our arms around the levy lid lift

The lid lift proposal, if approved, will be permanent — that is to say, it will become the fiscal floor of any future levies. There is a statutory maximum of $0.50 for EMS and $1.50 for fire services, which can only be changed by the state legislature. We could use an honest discussion around the accounting gimmick of separating out Fire from EMS (they are mutually inclusive), but that’s a discussion for another day.

Owners of a home currently valued at $400,000 are paying approximately $0.85 per $1,000 valuation for fire services ($340) and $0.36 for EMS ($144), for a combined total of $484. The new rates of $1.30/$1,000 for fire and $0.50/$1,000 will rise to a combined total of $720 next year, a net $236 increase. Yes — the Fire/EMS property tax rate will increase from $1.21 to $1.80 per $1,000 valuation — a whopping 48.7%!

These individual examples are close approximations. Actual figures are based on total district assessments — once new construction, senior citizen discounts, and timber and utility levies are calculated. If assessed valuations go up, the levy rate goes down; if they go down, the levy rate goes up until it hits the statutory maximum.

This image would be more accurate if Fire and EMS were depicted in one slice — they are hand-in-glove at 16.08% of the 2023 pie.

Fires account for less than TWO PERCENT of calls – the vast majority come from PT senior living centers, for aid cars

According to EJFR’s 2021 Annual Report, EMS calls “remained steady” at three-quarters (75%) of the districts demand. Only 1.56% were fires. At a recent town hall promoting the levy, Chief Black said there were 5,029 calls in 2022. Roughly 70% of calls are within Port Townsend’s city limits, unsurprisingly dominated by the area’s senior living centers.

A friend who works for EJFR tells me that it’s not uncommon to get two or three calls a day from Avamere alone. That facility and Victoria Place are owned by mega corporations with annual revenues between $500 million – $900 million. Why should overburdened taxpayers (JeffCo’s median household income is $57,700) subsidize these affluent outfits? We could easily create a tiered fee structure for these heavy users that recoups a reasonable portion of district costs.

Volunteer vs. career fire districts — the macro view

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is the primary union in the U.S. and Canada. An illuminating industry blog article from 2017 highlights some historical tensions:  [Editor’s note: this came from an unfunny April Fool’s false story posted to an industry website]

“In an incredible policy reversal, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) has called a truce on a decades-long feud with the volunteer fire service. It’s widely known that 70% of the American fire service is comprised of unpaid or barely compensated volunteers, while the remaining 30% are career staff. The large majority of firefighters in the United States are volunteers.

It’s been a long-held position of the IAFF that volunteer firefighters take jobs away from career firefighters, thus threatening the sanctity and long-term viability of the union. The IAFF’s continued mission to grow the union has been happening at a slower pace than planned…”

IAFF President Christopher Montgomery stated that it was time to rethink the 100-year-old IAFF platform. During a brainstorming session with the executive board of directors, the idea of unionizing volunteer stations was presented… After very little discussion it was clear the decision was pivotal and necessary for the health of the union.”

The Union über alles. Too commonly the institution itself becomes the raison d’être for its existence, especially when large sums of money are involved.  This is the natural trend for all governing bodies.

But it gets even darker, according to this Nov. 2021 article in The Hill…

“The ongoing challenges with recruitment and retention are compounded by the constitution and bylaws of the IAFF, prohibiting career firefighters from volunteering. These bylaws were codified in March and include “volunteering” in a list of serious charges such as embezzlement, assault of an officer, or membership in a terrorist organization. The penalty for a career firefighter donating his time to help a child who is having an asthma attack, or to respond to a car accident or participate in saving a neighbor’s home or business could be a “reprimand, fine, suspension from office, or suspension or expulsion from membership.

In states and jurisdictions with collective bargaining laws, the IAFF’s ban against volunteering is expanding past its bylaws with recommendations that are highlighted in the union’s “Model Contract Language Manual,” to prohibit a career firefighter from volunteering regardless of union membership.”

The micro view

My sources tell me that an effort to squeeze out the volunteers began in the early 2000’s, progressively leaving the department very close to 100% career (the IAFF played a role in that shift) despite the Annual Report’s claim of 30 volunteers. I’m told it’s more like 6 outpost volunteers (Airport Station, Kala Point, Marrowstone) with EMT certification, and a few support folks who can drive certain vehicles.  The word is that the Union shop has not been a friendly atmosphere for the volunteers for some time, so they do their own thing and respond to emergencies as needed.  If you look closely at the YES! yard signs on area lawns, you’ll see the Union logo.

What community doesn’t value its emergency responders? Ours are well trained and offer the district a high level of knowledge, skills and abilities. For that, they are well-paid, with the most senior employees earning pay packages topping $200,000 a year.

The median salary with overtime for EJFR’s 41 full-time firefighters/EMTs is $109,415, not including their generous benefits package — typically valued at an additional 40%, so roughly another $43,000+. On average, they work 8 days a month. These are 24-hour shifts where they are basically on call. They have a kitchen, showers, beds, television — most of the basic comforts of home.

In comparison, the average salary of PT police officers is $74,194. It could be argued that their job overall is as dangerous or moreso — dealing daily with homelessness, mental health, drug and alcohol related violence — and it doesn’t include nearly as many attractive perks.

What are the options?

This tax increase will have significant cascading impacts on residents with modest and fixed incomes, as landlords will be forced to raise rents for both residential and commercial occupants in an already-strained rental market. Many economists say the US (and its Western partners) are already in a recession that promises to worsen. What else could be done at this crucial moment to ameliorate EJFR’s cash crunch?

For starters, the administration and line personnel might take a 10% pay cut. Sound harsh? An average salary of $98,500 seems a respectable remuneration for a force for whom medical transports constitute three-quarters of a day’s work.

Combination departments: Restore some balance between career and volunteer crews. South Whatcom County Fire Authority (SWRFA), for instance, has a force of 21 full-time career and 35 volunteer and part-time FF/EMTs. South Whidbey Fire/EMS (SWFE) has 12 career and roughly 40 volunteers. Clallam County Fire District 3 (CCFD3) has roughly 40 career and more than 60 volunteers.

Special use assessments for high volume (eg. assisted living facilities) and high risk (eg. the mill) users.

Aggressive pursuit of grant monies, eg. FEMA’s Fire Service Grants and Funding (AFG), which provides funds for equipment, apparatus, training and salaries.

Develop your own immunity — to the scare tactics

Despite the district’s 1.5% fire calls figure, emotive images of blazing fires are employed in agency documents and marketing materials to engender empathy, support and — let’s face it — fear. So brazen is this campaign that, rather than a photograph of Chief Black and Asst. Chief Brummel on the Organizational Chart page of the Annual Report, there are pictures of — you guessed it —

Ours is already a highly fearful population who are easily convinced by these tired manipulations to demand the very solution that’s being put forward by their ‘trusted leaders’ without a drop of critical thinking. Legacy media and comment forums are peppered with snarky, alarmist replies to anyone questioning the lid lift — yeah, wait till your house is on fire!  It’s 98.5% more likely that you’ll have any other reason to call 911 in the future, so perhaps take added precautions to prevent slip-and-falls, heart attacks and strokes (hint: non-pharmaceutical for the latter).

It would be great if these tax increases covered the services most needed by district residents. Nope. Should you need a ride from uptown to Jefferson Healthcare in an ambulance, you’ll get a bill for about $1,000. Cardiac issues will be swept directly off to St. Michael in Silverdale to the tune of around $5,000. Any other serious illness or trauma will be taken to Seattle by helicopter, normally from Jefferson Int’l Airport. Make that $30,000+.

I learned an awful lot while researching for this story. Insiders subscribe to these services, and suggest we do too — Airlift NW ($60/household per year) and/or LifeFlight ($75/household per year) as backup to whatever insurance you may have, including Medicare (though you’ll need A and B), so you don’t get stuck with one of those big fat bills mentioned above.

Don’t believe the hype.  We are not at risk of being neglected by our first responders if this levy fails. The district could bring back to the voters a more reasonable rate increase that does not have such a deleterious impact. If both administration and line personnel agreed to voluntarily lower their wages, such an effort would go a long way in fostering support for the next round.

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Editor’s Note:  The original post of this article included a math error that has been corrected.