Posted on 07/30/2008 5:16:30 PM PDT by LAforme2008
Karen Deamons wants to use the women's locker room, like a normal woman.
Deamons is transsexual - she presents herself and lives as a woman. But because she has not yet had sex-change surgery, Cleveland officials insist that she change clothes in the men's locker room of the indoor pool at Cudell Recreation Center, after they received complaints from a few women who said Deamons made them uncomfortable.
For more than a year, Deamons, 53, followed the mandate. But now, after an embarrassing question from a boy in the men's locker room, she's fighting the city.
She filed a gender discrimination complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and is urging the state legislature to pass an introduced bill that would bar cities from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Twenty states have passed similar bills.
"I can't do it anymore," Deamons said. "Every time I go through there, it's tearing my insides out."
Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi said the city's decision does not constitute discrimination.
"We are being as accommodating as we possibly can, given the request that's being made, given her own personal situation, given where she's at in life," Triozzi said. "We're trying to be sensitive."
Women interviewed recently at Cudell said they understand the dilemma. But most said they would be uncomfortable with a transsexual woman changing, at least openly, in the women's locker room.
"I just don't want them seeing, you know," said Holly Workman, who had brought six children to the center earlier this month.
Deamons, like other transsexual people, has the mind, personality and behavioral characteristics of the opposite sex, Deamons' endocrinologist, Thomas Murphy, wrote in a letter that Deamons carries. Murphy believes transsexual men and women should live as the gender with which they identify.
And national advocacy groups say that means people should use the locker room that matches the outward expression of their gender.
"It's just kind of the common-sense approach," said Kristina Wertz, legal director for the California-based Transgender Law Center. "Someone should use the restroom that corresponds with their identity and their appearance."
Deamons said that initially, she changed in the private toilet stalls of the women's locker room for about five months without conflict. After the complaints were lodged against her, she met with city officials, who asked if she had had sex reassignment surgery. Since the answer was no, she agreed to use the men's locker room, which, according to the city, recreation center workers are supposed to empty for her use.
A gender-neutral locker room - the goal of college student groups from California to Massachusetts - is not being considered. And the city will not consider clearing the women's room for Deamons.
"I'm not sure that makes any practical difference," Triozzi said. "The idea here is to provide the element of privacy necessary in these circumstances."
But Deamons said that the bathroom stalls have no doors in the men's locker room and that rec center employees never clear the men's locker room. She has not pushed for that, though.
Last month, while she was dressing, a little boy asked why there was a woman in the men's room. Embarrassed, Deamons tried to change in an enclosed area in a separate women's restroom - a move for which pool workers banned her from the pool for a week.
Then, earlier this month, Cudell employees insisted she sign into the pool on the men's registration sheet.
Deamons said she fears gangs will beat her up after seeing her emerging from the men's room or signing the men's registration sheet.
"I'm opening myself to get beat up," said Deamons, who refuses to sign the men's sheet and so is not allowed to swim. "They're infringing on my rights."
Although she remembers feeling female as early as 10 or 11, Deamons lived for years as a man. As a man, she married twice and has three children. In 2000, she began hormone treatments to transition to a woman.
Deamons sees no real options.
She can't switch to another city pool, since the mandate applies to all of them.
She says she must swim. She suffered three strokes in 2003 and 2004, and doctors have prescribed water exercises to help keep mobility in her left arm and leg.
She uses a wheelchair and must take public transportation, so Cudell is the most convenient city pool from her Cleveland home.
And since she is on a limited budget of disability payments - her strokes forced her to give up her livelihood as an electrician - she can't afford to join a private club.
So she believes she must challenge the city and demand to change her clothes in the private stalls of the women's locker room or in an enclosed room in another women's restroom.
"I want the city to let me go through the ladies' room as a normal woman," she said. "That's who I am and what I am."
I want to know if one is simply tran-gender curious if you can visit opposite sex bathrooms....you know, kinda see if you like it first...
Obviously, since surgery hasn’t occurred yet, the author meant to say “HE”, not “she”. I guess we’re editorializing in the news again.
>> “ can’t do it anymore,” Deamons said. “Every time I go through there, it’s tearing my insides out.” <<
You’re not the only one, miss..er, I mean, sir...ummm
I have a feeling that due to the fact Karen has had several strokes a few years ago, her prospects for complete surgery are almost nil.
There is no “she” here. This is a man with a psychological problem or a perversion. Don’t buy into the language. This is an XY genetically bona fide male regardless of what he does to mutilate himself.
“Obviously, since surgery hasn’t occurred yet, the author meant to say “HE”, not “she”. I guess we’re editorializing in the news again.”
No actually the style book from the press company that shall not be named says you should refer to the transgender person as they gender they present in.
What was the embarrassing question?
It is my understanding that even gays and lesbians are uncomfortable around trangendered people. How do they expect the public at large to deal with them?
There, fixed it.
“It would not bother me if this Karen person was in the womans bathroom or locker room after the operation because then I know “SHE” could not sexually attack me because “she” would not have the organ to do so!”
Chances are if she’s been on female hormones for any length of time there would be no danger of that happening anyway.
And if she is like most MTF individuals, she’s not interested in women.
There was someone in our (female) locker room who definitely had a “package.” I really don’t care but then I’m 60. I guess I do care when my 7 year old granddaughter is there. There are “family” changing rooms and that seems to me to be the compromise. These rooms always seem unused. No showers or hot tubs but hey, it’s a compromise. Also, one of my friends never changes in the locker rooms but then she doesn’t swim. There are the public restrooms. hmmm.
Gender neutral locker rooms, like gender neutral bathrooms, are normally one user at a time with locks on the doors.
It’s all about him/her/it. There is some consideration for others (changing in bathroom stalls), but other than that, it’s all about MEEEEEEEEEEEEE and not about social NORMS. He/she/it should take the plunge and get reassignment surgery, or he/she/it could get help (from a CONSERVATIVE therapist), or he/she/it could pick a type of exercise where outfit changes can be done in the privacy of ones home.
The person’s last name says it all.
OK, so it has to be reassignment or therapy. Begging your pardon.
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