Dear Governor Inslee,
As a woman who believes in the legal recognition and protections for the sex-based realities of women and girls, I am very concerned about what happened in Port Townsend on Aug. 15th as well as the persistent hateful and undemocratic behavior displayed by the local city government.
On Aug 15th a group of mostly elderly women gathered to make public comments prior to a scheduled city council meeting. The intent was to clarify the position of Julie Jaman, an 80-year-old woman banned from her local pool for reacting to seeing a young man watching little girls in a state of undress in the women's locker room. The city had chosen to misrepresent Jaman and her criticism. She had every right to publicly restate her position.
I am not a resident of Port Townsend; however, I am a resident of Washington State. I was part of the group of thirty-five women who showed up to support Jaman. We gathered at Pope Marine Park to criticize the state law and speak out against how the local government had chosen to handle the situation.
The city of Port Townsend conspired against women they declared guilty of heresy. They not only denied us fundamental constitutional rights, but the inaction of Port Townsend Police put our lives in jeopardy.
Washington law prioritizes the feelings and safety of gender non-conforming male bodies and burdens women with finding different accommodations. Section (2)(a) of WA 162-32-06 has absolutely no value because it is rendered meaningless by the last two words.
“If another person expresses concern or discomfort about a person who uses a facility that is consistent with the person’s gender expression or gender identity, the person expressing discomfort should be directed to a separate or gender-neutral facility, if available.”
“If available” clearly communicates that providing single-sex spaces for women is not a legal requirement. The law has led to an increasingly common trend: Men’s spaces keeping intact while women’s spaces have become all-gendered. This is creating a world where only women with access to private facilities or those willing to share intimate spaces with male bodies can access freedom of social mobility.
To be more specific, this issue will disproportionately affect women of lesser means who rely on access to public resources. These women are unlikely to speak up about their discomfort or about any abuse they have experienced due to how women who speak up are villainized and punished.
If this sounds familiar, it should. It was what the left was fighting against during the #MeToo movement. Yet, that class awareness has seemed to suddenly disappear.
I am sympathetic to the violence gender non-conforming males face and believe they deserve access to facilities that provide them with dignity, privacy, and security. However, women are not the source of this violence, and it is not the responsibility of women to surrender their spaces based on shared victimization at the hands of men.
The demands to the Port Townsend City Council put forth by the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) on August 15 are not unreasonable by any measure. The demands are as follows,
None of these demands are inflammatory against the trans community. It is about informing the public of policy changes and their rights regarding the law so they can make informed choices for themselves. Improved communication would benefit all parties.
I understand why you don’t want the public informed, it would increase the demand for additional spaces and for those spaces to be a legal requirement to provide. Business groups are likely to lobby against it due to the cost and logistics of creating additional facilities. You can imagine however, that is not where my sympathies lie.
On August 1st, Jaman spoke to the Port Townsend City Council about her experience, the promises made by the YMCA that they failed to keep before implementing co-ed spaces, and concerns regarding parental consent and knowledge regarding male caretakers providing intimate care to their daughters. All is easily available online to watch through the city council’s site.
In the days following the meeting, once the issue began getting media attention, Mayor David Faber drafted a “trans proclamation” for the city. None of the statements made in the proclamation were relevant to the issues brought by Jaman and her supporters. It invoked statistics that do not represent the overwhelmingly white, middle-class, trans-identifying residents of Port Townsend nor were they relevant.
Mayor Faber also began to focus on the right-wing criticisms and projected them onto Jaman. He dedicated himself to dismissing, demeaning, and belittling women who voiced their concerns; he also endorsed and platformed an “anti-fa” Twitter account in the days leading up to Julie’s event.
As stated, I was there on August 15th. I witnessed police stand around and do nothing while women were assaulted and harassed. After the event, it was reported that police knew there were outside groups coming to Port Townsend with the intent to do harm. They knew of people in the crowd with concealed weapons and did little to nothing to protect the women. Police had to be called multiple times for additional highway patrol officers to arrive.
In a recent interview, Police Chief Thomas Olson blamed the women for the violence they experienced. He stated that he felt like the “agenda was put above public safety.”
Amy Sousa, the woman who organized the event, spoke with Chief Olson several times over the phone and by email. She repeated her concerns to him several times and he often downplayed them. He told Sousa that he spoke to the counter-protesters and that they would be protesting in a different part of the park. Sousa took Olson at his word, that things would be under control. When it was shown not to be the case, Olson said that Sousa “hadn’t requested police staffing for the event.”
When panicked onlookers and supporters asked for help, Officer Kamal Sharif responded
“Please let the folks there know that if you don’t feel safe being there, you’re free to leave.”
The “folks” who were told they could leave were the women being kettled against a brick wall.
Sousa did everything right, she obtained a permit through the city, she communicated with the police often, and when faced with a mob, the women linked arms and stood firm.
Why was the burden of de-escalation on peacefully assembled women?
The original plan was to do the press conference for Julie and then go to the city council meeting. The meeting started at 6:30, it has been reported that people started lining up at two in the afternoon. The women could not wait in line safely and the police refused to help them do so.
Events that, at the end of the day, Mayor Faber referred to as “an incredible night.”
Bigotry is an “obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction; in particular, prejudice against a person or people based on their membership of a specific group.” It is undeniable that the city council of Port Townsend is guilty of the very thing they accuse Jaman and her supporters of; the difference, however, is that the council has the means and power to oppress Jaman and her supporters.
They discourage reasonable discussion and create an atmosphere where residents who disagree with the city council risk social and even economic ramifications if they speak in support of Jaman. This blatant abuse of power is usually frowned upon in progressive politics.
There is no other issue in modern Democratic politics where this behavior against women is seen as acceptable. Democrats once encouraged women and girls to step forward and speak out. Now they are asking women and girls to silence their instincts and to relinquish claim to pregnancy and childbirth, all in the name of being “kind.”
As I drove up to Port Townsend, I passed the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW). I thought about the women forced to house with male bodies against their will behind those walls. This led to thinking about the recent allegations in Indiana where female inmates claim a guard sold keys to their cells to male prisoners who then sexually assaulted them. Here in Washington however, our tax dollars pay for “gender-affirming care”. Essentially, we pay male prisoners in services and then allow them access to vulnerable women.
To you, Governor, I ask, where is the kindness for women?
Women are noticing the harm the Democratic party is inflicting on them. We are not right-wing extremists; most of the women who gathered to support Julie Jaman were “yellow dog” democrats, myself included.
The call is coming from inside the house.
Show kindness and condemn the behavior of Port Townsend officials, as they have lost track of objective truth. Encourage a state-wide conversation on the topic of sex-based protections for women and girls and protect the women of your state to speak freely. It is not the women on the right who are denied the ability to speak openly and honestly, it is happening to your own supporters.
If you are a Washington resident and would like to send your own comment or letter to Governor Inslee his office can be contacted at the information below. You can also send an e-message here
Write
Governor Jay Inslee
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002
Call
360-902-4111
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Fax
360-753-4110
GREAT letter. Thank you.