For four decades, Julie Jaman was a regular at the YMCA’s Mountain View Pool, but she was slapped with a lifetime ban in 2022 after confronting a transgender staffer in the women’s locker room.
Now, the 82-year-old resident of Port Townsend, Washington, wants to swim again — and she’s willing to play legal hardball to make it happen.
Her attorney, Center for American Liberty CEO Harmeet Dhillon, fired off a demand letter threatening legal action unless the city and YMCA lift the ban, issue a formal apology to Ms. Jaman and pay her $350,000 in damages for “emotional distress arising out of the incident.”
“We call on the City and the YMCA to reverse their illegal decision, correct this injustice, and prioritize public safety over woke ideology,” said Ms. Dhillon in a statement.
She accused the city and YMCA of violating Ms. Jaman’s First and 14th Amendment rights, arguing that their conduct was “not only unlawful but shameful.”
“When an 80-year-old woman reasonably believes she is witnessing a crime against minors in a women’s showering area, the government’s reaction should be to gather all of the facts and learn what happened, not take sides in an ideologically charged debate,” Ms. Dhillon said in the Tuesday letter.
Ms. Jaman became a cause celebre for women’s privacy rights — and persona non grata at the Olympic Peninsula YMCA — after accosting in July 2022 “a man wearing a woman’s swimsuit” in the women’s locker room with two young girls.
She asked the adult, “Do you have a penis?” The individual replied, “None of your business.” Ms. Jaman yelled back, “Get out of here!”
The “man wearing a woman’s swimsuit” turned out to be a transgender YMCA staffer who was escorting the girls to the bathroom. The YMCA kicked Ms. Jaman out, saying she violated its code of conduct on disrespectful behavior.
Ms. Jaman swung back by standing outside the YMCA with a sign saying, “Men who identify as women are using the women’s dressing rooms.” She spoke at a city council meeting and held an August 2022 #LetJulieSwim rally that was swarmed by transgender rights activists.
The day after the rally, Port Townsend Mayor David Faber issued a proclamation saying that “discrimination and prejudice, in any form, particularly against transgender people, are unwelcome and have no place in the City of Port Townsend.”
He also took jabs on social media at TERFs, or trans-exclusionary radical feminists, a derogatory term for women who oppose biological males who identify as female in women’s spaces.
“Trans and cis-allies alike spoke love & support, and the only TERF speaker was from out of town. Tonight reminded me why Port Townsend is home,” Mr. Faber said in a tweet on Aug. 16, 2022.
The Olympic Peninsula YMCA followed up with a letter telling Ms. Jaman that she was banned for life due to a “pattern of code of conduct violations,” which she denies.
Ms. Dhillon said emails and other internal records show that city and YMCA officials “engaged in a sophisticated and coordinated public relations campaign to smear Jaman and make her appear to be bigoted and dangerous to transgender individuals.”
“This couldn’t be further from the truth,” the attorney said. “It is true that Jaman supports keeping women’s spaces reserved for biological women. But she does not harbor hate towards anyone based on their gender identity, nor has she ever engaged in harassment at the Pool or elsewhere. Yet that is exactly what the City and the YMCA have led the public to believe through their false and misleading statements.”
Ms. Jaman said she hopes “my credibility is restored.”
“I was showering in the women’s dressing room when I saw a man wearing a woman’s swimsuit watching little girls undress. I was obligated to speak up and ask for help,” she said in a statement. “Since that moment, I have suffered mob-like attacks, public humiliation and widespread mendacious reporting.”
The Washington Times has reached out to Port Townsend and YMCA officials for comment.
Ms. Dhillon called on the city and YMCA to respond by March 27, warning that if they miss the deadline, “all options will be on the table, including the institution of legal proceedings in court.”
The Olympic Peninsula YMCA is paid by the city to operate the Mountain View Pool.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.