COLUMBUS, OH – Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the Ohio government on behalf of a 15-year-old girl urging for stronger protections in private female spaces after an adult male employee of the YMCA invaded a shower reserved for female minors under the guise of claimed “transgender” status and behaved indecently toward girls.

The letter, addressed to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Speaker of the House Matt Huffman, and Senate President Rob McColley, commends the state for a law protecting women and girls from male indecency in private spaces in public schools, but conveyed further action is needed to expand those protections to all public accommodations.

In a police incident form filed by Liberty Counsel’s minor client, a 25-year-old male employee of a Louisville, Ohio YMCA engaged in lewd and indecent behavior toward minor girls. According to the report, he wore a thin, one-piece women’s bathing suit as he watched five minor females throughout the day during a lifeguard course. At one point, the male perpetrator entered the shower for minor girls and showered with Liberty Counsel’s client making her and other girls feel highly uncomfortable and unsafe. He stared at her, made inappropriate conversation, caressed himself, and attempted to brush up against her.

Even though there were other males in the lifeguard course and male facilities were available, the perpetrator chose to associate with and harass the underage girls in the minor girls’ locker room. The girl reported his actions to the YMCA staff, but she was told to use the handicap bathroom if she was uncomfortable. The YMCA staff then told the man he should use the over-18 women’s locker room facilities.

In the letter, Liberty Counsel cites Ohio law which permits organizations like the YMCA to separate facilities based on sex, which doesn’t protect “gender identity” in this context.

“The YMCA and all other places of public accommodation already may (and should) require ‘all persons’ to use the bathroom, locker, or shower facility designated for use by either the male or female sex,” reads the letter. “This is not unlawful discrimination.”

Ohio law allows organizations like the YMCA “to protect girls and other females from sexually-charged conduct targeting them,” noted Liberty Counsel. 

In addition, the letter explains that federal Title VII law also justifies sex-based separation in intimate spaces. Current Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Justice guidance affirm that women have a vital privacy interest in using intimate spaces free from the presence of men and that Title VII does not require access to sex-specific spaces based on gender identity.

“Permitting a male to invade female bathrooms, lockers, and showers de facto violates the Title VII protections and sex-based accommodations to which the girls and other females are entitled,” wrote Liberty Counsel. “Thus, no employer – including YMCA – should be able to facilitate or condone male public indecency (defined by Ohio law) nor fail to provide the girls the safety of bathroom facilities free from males on the basis of the male’s claimed ‘transgender’ status.”

Liberty Counsel urged Ohio legislators to amend and expand its current law protecting private spaces in public schools to all public sex-specific facilities in the state as a “long-term and comprehensive solution” for protecting females from public indecency in such places. Another action the state could take is through the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives where state funding is made available to the YMCA.

“The Office of the Governor may review and withhold funds until YMCA confirms it will forbid males from girls’ and women’s bathrooms, lockers and showers,” wrote Liberty Counsel. This would be consistent presidential executive order 14168 that defends women from gender ideology and restores biological truth to the federal government by withholding funding from organizations that do not protect female privacy, the letter noted.   

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Girls have the right to their intimate private spaces free from the opposite sex. Restricting male access to female facilities is not discrimination, but is rather an act to preserve the safety and privacy of women and girls. If the YMCA will not provide these protections that are legally and clearly allowed under state and federal law, then the state must act through legislative or defunding actions. People with gender confusion need counseling, not access to the private spaces of the opposite sex. Every state should have laws protecting women and girls in all public sex-specific spaces.”

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