Someone’s got to ruin it for everyone else.
A Seattle, Wash. community is in uproar after a man undressed in the women’s locker room at a local pool, seemingly to test a new rule that allows transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender identity, according to King 5 News.
An unidentified man wearing board shorts walked into the women’s bathroom of Evans Pool, in the heart of Seattle, on Monday evening.
The women inside the locker room at the time attempted to kick him out, but the guy refused and said “the law has changed and I have the right to be here.”
The man was referring to a local rule passed in December that mandates all public restrooms to allow transgender people to use bathroom assigned to their gender identity.
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The rule applies to schools, businesses and parks.
The state ruling enacted by the Human Rights Commission of Washington was met with criticism by some in the state who thought the rule went too far.
But efforts to repeal the rule halted in January when a judge ruled that the bill to reject transgender bathroom access would not get a hearing.
Hours before the man pulled his stunt, protesters on both sides of the gender-identity bathroom issue gathered at the steps of the Washington state capitol in Olympia.
Supporters of the law said that predators would still be prosecuted if they took advantage of the rule, while opponents cited sexual assault as a reason the ruling was dangerous for women in particular.
“We’re not here saying that the transgendered community are predators,” a woman who was a victim of sexual assault told KING-5 TV, “We will never say that because we don’t believe that. What we do believe is that this code is so poorly written that predators will abuse. We know it because we have lived it.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the country, South Dakota could be the first to pass a law that would force transgender people to use the bathroom of their sex at birth.
It’s unclear whether the man who broke into the women’s restroom of the Seattle pool was protesting the rule or just testing its limits.
He returned to the restroom for a second time later that evening, when young girls were changing for swim practice.
People who frequent Evans Pool were outraged that the man would take advantage of the new rule, designed to protect the rights of the transgender community.
“Either identify yourself as a transgender or you’re not and you’re just taking advantage of a loophole,” MaryAnn Sato, who uses the locker room a few times a week, told KING-5 TV.
“Sort of works against the point they’re trying to make. They’re causing people to feel exposed and vulnerable with the intention of reducing people feeling exposed and vulnerable,” Aldan Shank, a pool regular, said.
No one was arrested in the case, and police weren’t called.
