‘Transgender’ man may continue using girls’ locker room, says college
OLYMPIA, WA, November 9, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Washington state college has decided it will not prevent a 45-year-old man from lounging naked in a women’s locker room, in an area frequented by girls as young as six.
The 45-year-old man, who calls himself Colleen Francis, presents himself as a transgender “female.”
Evergreen State College shares its locker room with Capital High School, Olympia High School, the Evergreen Swim Club, and Aquatics Academy. The latter has students as young as six.
On September 26, teenage girls on a high school swim team were using the facilities when they saw “Colleen” Francis exposing male genitalia through the glass window in a sauna.
According to the police report an eyewitness stated, “There were girls 6 to 18 years of age and they were not used to seeing individuals in situations like this.”
Later that week, the mother of one of the girls as well as their coach contacted the police, only to be told the university would not bar a biological male from the premises.
Joe Wheeler of the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office said he will not prosecute the matter as indecent exposure.
Instead, the college set up curtains that the girls were instructed to change behind.
“Little girls should not be exposed to naked men, period. A college’s notions about ‘non-discrimination’ don’t change that,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel David Hacker.
In a letter, Hacker warned Vice President of Student Affairs Art Constantino that the university may be held liable if any of the female students at the college experience harm from being exposed to Francis.
“Clearly, allowing a person who is biologically a man to undress and expose himself to young girls places those girls at risk for emotional distress and harm. Any reasonable person would view this as dangerous to the young girls involved,” he wrote.