Woke Gender Policies and Women’s Safety

Written by Hudson Crozier

A longstanding issue: The recent controversy over a Virginia high school that covered up rape to further its pro-LGBT agenda is hardly the first of its kind. As radical gender ideology has advanced over the last several years, the resulting policies related to bathrooms, locker rooms, or changing rooms at schools, stores, and other public areas have repeatedly enabled the victimization of women.

Note: the following are only examples of when "gender identity" policies have directly contributed to an incident.

Olympia, WA (2012): At Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, parents complained of a 45-year-old transgender student regularly undressing and exposing male genitalia in front of minors in the women's locker room and sauna. Due to state law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, the school took no action beyond installing "privacy curtains."

Toronto (2012): A Canadian man named Christopher Hambrook, as of 2012, had served two prison sentences, first for sexually assaulting the 5-year-old daughter of a family friend and then a mentally disabled woman whom he also forced to smoke cannabis.

• In 2012, after moving to Toronto and posing as a transgender woman named "Jessica," Hambrook was granted access into two different community shelters for women and was later arrested for sexually abusing a resident at each of them, court records show.

• One was a deaf and homeless woman whom he stalked and made several unwanted advances to, including writing her suggestive notes, shoving her hand into his groin, and peeping on her in the shower. The other was a survivor of domestic violence whom he attempted to assault in her sleep.

• He was declared a "dangerous offender" and sentenced "indefinitely" in 2014.

Toronto (2015): At the Whitney Hall area of the University of Toronto, which had only gender-neutral bathrooms, male students were caught twice holding cellphone cameras over stalls to film women showering. In response, while keeping about half of the gender-neutral rooms, the school altered its policy to "specifically designate some washrooms in Whitney Hall for those who identify as men and those who identify as women," effectively doing nothing to prevent further male intrusion into women's spaces.

Seattle, WA (2016): After the state of Washington legalized choosing bathrooms based on gender identity, women at a public swimming pool in Seattle alerted staff of a man undressing in the women's locker room. When he was ordered to leave, he refused, saying, "the law has changed and I have a right to be here." He later used the room again while young girls were changing into swimsuits and was not arrested or removed.

Ammon, ID (2016): After Target stores changed their restroom policy in 2016 to allow transgender bathroom access, a self-proclaimed "transgender woman" in Idaho was arrested for taking photos of a woman using the store's changing room.

Atlanta, GA (2017): Pacha Thomas, the mother of a kindergarten student at a Georgia high school, reported that her 5-year-old daughter complained of vaginal pain, telling her that she was sexually assaulted in the bathroom by a male classmate who penetrated her with his fingers. When school officials largely ignored the allegation, she removed her daughter from the school and filed a complaint with the federal government’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which began an investigation.

• The OCR confirmed in 2020 that the school’s superintendent, without any public notice or vote by the school board, implemented a policy allowing students to access whatever restroom they choose, which allowed the boy to use the women’s room because he identified as "gender-fluid." The school then ignored Thomas' claims, quietly transferred the boy to another school, and openly denied rumors of the incident to parents.

• The OCR concluded that the district was guilty of a Title IX violation for failing to investigate an allegation of sexual assault.

• Thomas' lawyer, who will represent her in a federal lawsuit, has stated that her daughter will require years of counseling for her trauma.

Los Angeles, CA (2021): The Los Angeles police charged 52-year-old Darren Agee Merager, who identifies as a trans woman, with multiple counts of indecent exposure after several women at a local spa complained of him disrobing and lounging nude in the women's area among adults and minors.

• Merager has received two convictions of indecent exposure from 2002 and 2003, multiple counts of the same charge from 2018, and other felony convictions such as burglary.

• In alignment with California law, the spa allows use of spaces and services according to gender identity, and Merager has spoken with lawmakers in the hope that "If you go into an area where you’re expected to be nude, there has to be an indecent exposure exemption."

Wrentham, MA (2021): In August, women at Wrentham Outlets reported "a man dressed like a woman acting suspiciously" in the women's restroom. Police then arrested a 23-year-old driver for Amazon named Jacob Guererro, who had been filming and photographing adult and underage women, for which he now faces several counts of child pornography charges and one count of voyeurism.

• A police investigation revealed that Guererro had entered the restroom with small cameras fastened to his sneakers, capturing multiple videos of partially or completely nude women, some adults and some between 8 and 11 years old.

• Due to state law, public facilities in Massachusetts remain unable to prevent any such incident by restricting bathrooms based on gender. Not only was it legal for Guererro to enter that restroom, but it would have been illegal to bar him from it.

Philadelphia, PA (2022): The University of Pennsylvania's decision to allow transgender athlete Lia Thomas to compete on the women's swim team sparked debate over the fairness of males competing with females. Female teammates of Thomas also complained of their loss of privacy as Thomas was known to have sexual attraction toward women and often displayed male genitals in the locker room.

• Teammates told The Daily Mail that the university repeatedly ignored the complaints for fear of "ostracizing" Thomas.

• "The 35 of us are just supposed to accept being uncomfortable in our own space and locker room for, like, the feelings of one," a teammate said.

Evidence of a trend: As early as 2017, research cataloging hundreds of cases of male-on-female violence in public spaces showed:

• "Incidents where bio-males identified or expressed (clothing, wig, etc.) as women were more than twice as likely (2.1x) to happen in regions with gender legislation."

• "Regions with the highest incidents per population (per million) [were] all regions with gender-inclusive legislation."

Nevertheless, in flat denial of biological reality, progressive ideologues advocate destructive policies while dismissing their consequences.