(LifeSiteNews) – A Washington-era grandmother won a $65,000 settlement from the City of Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula YMCA after she was banned from a swimming pool for objecting to a cross-dressing man watching small girls change clothes.
As covered by LifeSiteNews in 2022, Julie Jaman testified before the Port Townsend City Council about her experience showering in the local pool’s facilities when she heard “a man’s voice in the women’s dressing area.” When she investigated, she said that she saw “a man in a women’s swimsuit, watching little girls pull down their bathing suits in order to use the toilets in the dressing room.”
She also told a local newspaper, “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.” She appealed to a nearby female manager, who she says replied, “you’re discriminating and you can’t use the pool anymore and I’m calling the police.”
After speaking to police and reviewing police reports, the Port Townsend FreePress reported that Jaman had an “emotional response to a strange male being in the bathroom and helping a young girl take off her bathing suit,” and was described as “screaming” by a complainant.
“In an effort by the city and the YMCA to apply the neo-cultural gender rules at Mountain View Pool dressing, shower room facilities, women and children are being put at risk,” Jaman declared at the time.
A YMCA marketing and communications manager responded at the time by disputing her version of events, claiming the male was not “engaging” with the young girls but was simply escorting them to the dressing room, and that the confrontation was just one in a series of many that led to her ban.
She sued, however, and on June 30 the group representing her, the Center for American Liberty (CAL), announced that the city and the YMCA chapter had agreed to a $65,000 settlement, which also provides that the city will “remove certain information about Ms. Jaman from its website, further underscoring the baselessness of the actions taken against her.”
“This case was never just about one woman being banned from a publicly owned pool, it was about the fundamental right of every American to speak truth without fear of retaliation,” said Mark Trammell, CEO of CAL. “Julie Jaman bravely stood her ground, endured attacks on her character, and today’s settlement affirms that government officials cannot silence dissenting voices through intimidation or retribution.”
“I never imagined that expressing concerns about the safety and privacy of women and girls would lead to me being shunned and banned,” Jaman added. “I’m grateful that justice has been served and that my voice was heard. This is a victory for common sense, women’s rights, and the right to speak the truth.”
Despite being demanded by LGBT activists as a matter of “fairness,” policies forcing girls to share intimate facilities such as bathrooms, showers, or changing areas with males who “identify” as the opposite sex violates their privacy rights, subjects them to needless emotional stress, and gives potential male predators a viable pretext to enter female bathrooms or lockers by simply claiming transgender status.
