WEBVTT - How Transphobia at a YMCA Took Over a Town 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.520 Warning for some pretty intense transphobia and miss gender ing. 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:13.040 Eighty year old Julie Jaman was permanently banned from her 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.200 local y m c A after demanding that a transgender 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.560 worker leave the women's locker room. Jaman said that she 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.680 was trying to protect little girls from a biological man 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:28.080 and a women's swimsuit who was watching them undressed. So 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.800 this week, a few dozen people joined Jaman to protest 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.160 the y m c A. Some of the protesters, including her, 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:38.160 were assaulted by lunatics men dressed as women. Okay, first 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.720 of all, that granny rocks, But when pressed, Poor Towns 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.360 and Washington police said that Mr Mrs Jayman had an 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.760 emotional response to a strange male being in the bathroom 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.320 and helping a young girl take off her bathing suit. Well, 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:55.440 I should hope the response to that would be emotional, Yeah, 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.760 because this, you know, you can just picture this kind 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.560 of situation where they're rooming little kids, uh, completely inappropriately, 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:05.720 and you're you're you're doing the thing that a lot 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.600 of people want you to do and that a lot 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.040 of people watching would But I hope everybody is aware 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.960 that this, from what I understand, is pretty wonderful profit 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:21.280 for big pharma and medical systems. It's and what's happening 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:28.360 to children becomes even more disastrous. And you were protecting 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:32.080 the kids. You were protecting the kids. I mean, they 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.960 should have a responsibility to do that. The Young Men's 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.560 Christians Association UH should be doing that themselves if they 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:44.640 were playing any role in this whatsoever. It's pretty frightening. 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.280 This is it could happen here. I'm Garrison, and today 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:54.360 we're talking about a recent flare up of anti trans 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:59.320 hate and the anti trans protests and campaigning that's engulfed 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.120 a small town in North and Washington in what conservatives 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:08.239 describe as the culture war front. The past month, for 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:13.440 right media personalities and anti trans so called feminists have 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.280 partnered together to create an international nexus point for the 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:22.000 increasing attacks on trans and queer people, resulting in a 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:27.160 wave of harassment, death threats, and rallies, including an upcoming 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.680 anti trans rally in association with the Proud Boys and 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:36.560 Three per Centers slated for Saturday, September three. Port Townsend 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.080 is a small city of just around ten thousand people 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:45.040 located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, just north 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.760 of Seattle. The city has a geographic footprint of just 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:53.000 under ten square miles. Over the course of the past month, 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.760 the quaint beachside city has become the focus of a 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:02.600 disinformation campaign against trans people and try gender inclusivity. But 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.760 unless you frequent right wing news outlets, you probably haven't 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.880 heard anything about this story, let alone are aware of 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:14.080 the massive amount of harassment and death threats being targeted 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:18.160 at trans people and their allies. Anti trans and far 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.519 right activists have already descended on this small city from 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.120 all around the country and plan to do so again 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.200 on September three, with Proud Boys and three per Centers 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:34.080 promising to show up. So what actually happened that escalated 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:38.400 things to this point? On July, an eighty year old 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:42.600 woman named Julie Jammon was in a pool locker room 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.480 and began verbally harassing a trans woman who was on 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.080 the job as an employee of the Olympic Peninsula y 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:54.520 m c A. Julie Jammen asked invasive questions about her 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:59.120 genitals and later accused her of engaging in inappropriate conduct 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:05.040 while continuously mis gendering this employee. Both the employee and 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:08.800 y m c A officials and like everyone else present 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:14.040 in the locker room, have disputed Julie's highly publicized version 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.200 of events, which we'll get into in a bit, but 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.440 first we're going to hear from the original target of 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.560 the harassment. A few days ago, I was able to 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.719 talk with Clementine Young trans woman about what happened to 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.080 her near the end of July while working at the 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.320 y m c A. It was a pretty normal day 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:40.640 that week. We were doing uh, swimming with the kids, 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:48.320 uh and man the other childcare workers, uh, you know, 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.320 use the locker rooms kind of as expected, and I 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:55.159 was using the woman's locker room just because you know, 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:59.520 that works for me, um, and that lines up with 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.520 how I feel. We went through all that no problems. 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.240 We got the kids, the kids got changed and their stalls, 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.520 and then once we were out in the pool, one 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.680 of the kids needed to use the locker room bathroom, 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.599 so I took that kid and another kid into the 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:22.240 locker room in accordance with the wise rule of three system. 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.039 To clarify, at the y m c A, there is 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:29.200 a quote rule of three where staff always accompany children 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.440 in a group of three, so that a staff person 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.200 is never alone with a child and children are never 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.760 alone with each other. As Clementine was standing with a 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.159 kid outside the restroom stall, waiting on the other kid 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:45.360 who was using the bathroom, Julie Gemmond was showering nearby 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.960 in a curtained off stall across the locker room. I 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.200 was waiting outside of the bathroom stall with the kid 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:58.360 being the buddy, making small talk when Julie Jaman initiated 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:02.320 the dialogue by asking if I was a member of 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:11.120 the lgbt Q plus community. I responded, yes, I'm trans 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:18.520 and she asked me if I had a penis, and 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.440 it kind of caught me off guard. Um, and I 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.880 and I told her that, you know, that's none of 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:29.400 your business. Um. Julie asserted that I needed to leave 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.799 and that I can't be there. And then in response 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:37.880 to her assertion, I just shook my head. Now, Um, 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:42.479 I couldn't really leave or I'd be leaving the kids unattended. 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.799 And you know, I was backed into a corner the kid. 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:54.120 At some point, Um, the kid using the bathroom exited 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:58.839 the stall and had her swimming. Her bathing suit like 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.760 wasn't fully pulled up, and she asked me for help, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.800 and so I assisted her by pulling it up by 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.880 its straps, and you know, there were other patrons present 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.320 in the locker room at this time, and at some 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.520 point around the girl coming out and needing her straps 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:24.280 pulled up, Julie was back in her shower stall, and 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.080 then around this time, two more kids entered the locker room. 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:32.800 It might be good to mention I have prescribed glasses. Um, 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.800 I wasn't wearing my glasses and I couldn't see anything, 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.240 which is kind of terrifying, because you know, it was 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.520 like a shot in the dark, like I just heard 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.480 a voice and I had to search around before I 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:51.480 figured out who's talking to me. But anyways, uh, the kids, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.400 two more kids came into the locker room and they 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.880 overheard Julie shouting at me and asked me what was 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.400 going on, and like they had this concerned look on 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.520 their face, and I just kind of told them to 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.760 leave because I didn't want them to get involved. The 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.120 kids went to the pool manager, Rowan, and asked for 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.680 help with the escalating situation. They went straight to her 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:19.960 and asked her to come help and told her that 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.440 someone was yelling at me. And moments later, Rowan entered 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.840 and as she walked by. I got her attention, and 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.960 I told her, you know, there's an older lady yelling 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.400 at me to leave right now. Uh, And I pointed 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.760 at the shower stall that Julie was using. Roan kind 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:45.480 of like posted up and Rowan stood in between me, 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.920 the kids, and Julie and waited for her to come out. 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.680 And then Julie you know, poked her head back out 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:59.600 and said get out, you're a man. Um and Rowan 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.560 you intervened when she sort of like popped back out 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.600 and said, no, actually, you need to leave because right 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:12.000 now you're discriminating and kind of being a bigot. So 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.160 it's actually that you need It's actually you that needs 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.960 to leave right now. And Julie told Rohan she was 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:23.360 confused about gender. And then Julie pointed at me and said, 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.480 he has a fucking penis. He has no business being 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.480 around little girls. He has a penis, and he could 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:35.560 rape someone. And after that, Rowan uh sort of ushered 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.559 me and the girls out of the locker room and 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.080 uh told me to go to her office, and then 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:46.160 the other staff members found me and helped me. Um 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.640 and Rowan stood outside the lobby side of the office 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:54.200 when I was in there, and um, I guess like, yeah, 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.840 after the police have been called, Julie came out and 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:02.559 engaged with her, uh, and they were yelling, but I 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.360 kind of hear what was going on, and I mean, 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.000 that's kind of the end of it. I know that 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:13.679 Julie left after that. I just kind of checked out 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.320 for an hour two. It shocked me. I haven't had 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.960 someone do that to me before. I've never been talked 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.560 to in a bathroom or locker room before, especially in 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.880 that way. The y m c A pool manager told 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.440 Julie Gemmen that she needed to leave and suspended her 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:39.079 membership for violating the Wise Code of Conduct, which prohibits 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:44.920 quote discrimination, hatred, derogatory or unwelcome comments, intimidation, conduct or 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:51.840 actions based on an individual's sex, race, ethnicity, age, religion, disability, 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:56.880 sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status unquote, as 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.840 well as having no tolerance for disrespectful words or just 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.240 ors towards y m c A staff or others. Part 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.120 of an official statement released by the Olympic Peninsula y 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.600 m c A, published as the incident in question was 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:14.440 growing into a much broader anti trans spectacle, clarified that 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:18.800 Julie has had quote several incidents where she has repeatedly 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:23.360 violated the wise Code of conduct, specifically using disrespectful words 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.120 or gestures towards y m c A staff or others, 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:30.760 and abusive, harassing and or obscene language or gestures towards 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:34.199 y m c A staff or others. The aquatics manager 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.839 then informed the patron that she was permanently suspended from 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.679 Mountain View Pool and all Olympic Peninsula y m c 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:47.400 A facilities unquote. After Julie was banned from the pool 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.680 on Monday, August one, she started showing up outside the 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:56.120 facility with anti trans signs and led a small group 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.719 of people into a city council meeting, resulting in an 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:04.280 hour of public comment logged about the incident. Here is 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.080 some of the statement Julie read in the city council meeting, 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:12.160 which also gives a look at her version of events 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.200 at this time. Podium, state your name and where you 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:22.120 live for the record, Peninsula, and I'm here because I 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.680 had an experience that you need to know. I have 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.120 sent it to you all in detail. In an effort 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:29.920 by the city and the y m c A to 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.160 apply the neocultural gender rules at Mountain View pool dressing 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:38.400 shower room facilities, women and children are being put at risk. 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.920 My experience while showering after my swim was hearing a 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.120 man's voice in the women's dressing area and seeing a 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:50.200 man in a women's swimsuit watching little girls pull down 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.960 their bathing suits in order to use the toilets in 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.560 the dressing room. I reacted by telling him to leave, 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:00.320 and the consequences that I have been banned from the pool. 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.200 There is no signage informing women the shower room is 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.959 now all gender and what that means, Nor have parents 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.920 been informed of what they can expect with these news policies. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:19.360 The why has not provided any dressing shower room options 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:21.920 for women who do not want to be exposed to 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.440 men who identify as women. The y m c A, 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.920 the city, the police and sheriff's, the parents, the professionals 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:35.040 who assist victims of royealism, peeping tom's, pedophilia, and assault 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.000 need to come together to figure out how to make 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.240 the new policies work for all pool patrons, not just 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:46.080 one group. How to keep children who are less able 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:51.839 to discriminate safe. It is ironic that women who discriminate 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.720 when a situation threatens their safety or their children. A 0:13:55.760 --> 0:14:00.760 message from our ancestors are now cused of discrimination as 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:05.600 if they have made someone else a victim. We need 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.120 to do much more intelligence and wise about applying the 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:15.839 rules and developing policies that are respectful and inclusive. Thank you, 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:28.600 thank you so. Just a few notes about that. Trans 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:33.880 inclusivity at the Y is not some new policy. For years, 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.960 it's been literally Washington state law that people have the 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:42.080 right to access the locker rooms, changing rooms, and bathrooms 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.360 that align with their gender identity. This has been the 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:51.440 case since the law states, quote, entities shall allow individuals 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:55.680 to use the gender segraded facilities such as westrooms, locker rooms, 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.560 dressing rooms, and homeless or emergency shelters that are consistent 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:04.240 with at individual's gender expression or gender identity unquote. And 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.000 regarding Julie's account of the incident, there have been no 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.560 complaints from children or parents who are using the pool, 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.640 and multiple accounts conflict with Julie's telling of the story, 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:22.440 as the employee never did help anyone undress, nor was 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:27.960 watching anyone change. Throughout this city Council meeting, there were 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:32.000 several public comments in support of trans rights that pushed 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:36.080 back on Julie's outrageous claims and called out the overall 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:41.720 trend of mis gendering and the groomer style transphobia. At 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.520 the end of the meeting, city officials themselves took a 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.040 stand against the transphobic rhetoric that was present throughout the 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:52.400 hour of public comments. Oddly enough, for this show, one 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.920 of the people I interviewed for this episode serves as 0:15:55.960 --> 0:16:02.320 a Port Townsend City councilwoman. My name's Libby winstrom Um. 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.360 I'm an elected city councilor for the City of Port Townsend, 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.680 and I'm speaking today on as myself rather than as 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:11.960 a representative of the city or a representative of the 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.200 city council as a whole. When did you first kind 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.760 of hear about this thing that's now ballooned into this 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:20.960 larger issue with people coming in from out of state 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.640 to do protests and all this kind of stuff. I 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.920 think I first heard about it on Sunday night, which 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.000 would have been I guess the thirty one of July. 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.040 And I heard about it from the y m c 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:39.280 A Aquatics director Rowan mackins Um, and it was more 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.040 in the tone of kind of a heads up that 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.560 this was a thing that was going on, and then 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.080 I heard a lot more about it the next day, 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.600 which was Monday, the first of August UM when uh 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:52.920 Julia Jaman showed up at the pool with a whole 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.960 group of people doing a protest that they were picketing 0:16:56.200 --> 0:17:00.800 at the pool, and she also sub had a public 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:03.640 comment to the City council meeting that night. And at 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.280 that point I realized that a group of people, including Julie, 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.719 was probably going to plan on attending the City council 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:14.080 meeting UM and reached out to some friends and acquaintances 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:20.280 in the UM trans and Allies community, UM Olympic Pride, UM, 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:24.240 the Social Justice Group and at the Unitarian Church here 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.640 in town and various other people who had been kind 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.159 of resourced and say, hey, this is going on, you 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.240 need to be aware of it. And in fact, that 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.280 night there was over an hour of public comment. There 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.439 wasn't anything on these council agenda. There wasn't anything we 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.320 were discussing. It wasn't really a matter. It wasn't really 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:48.359 i think, even on the city's radar. But people showed 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:51.679 up the City council meeting. And normally when there's a 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.120 public comment about an item that's not on the agenda. 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.240 They cut off public comment at half an hour, but 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:58.679 for whatever reason, let it run that night, so it 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.600 was well over an hour of public comment. And some 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:07.119 of the things said, we're pretty shocking, and um, you know, 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.280 to the to the tune of that you know all 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:13.159 transgender people were pedophiles, or that you know, this was 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.639 a rape happening, and some some stamons that were just 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:22.600 not true. And then based on what I heard that night, 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.160 I was really concerned and felt that this was both 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:29.960 you know, this was ballooning out of proportion, which now 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.160 seems kind of funny given how much more balloon it's 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.120 out of proportion. It's gotten. There's not really any action 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.240 here for the city or for the pool. I mean, 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.280 one of the things that Julia Jaman has retained legal 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:42.840 counsel and sent a demand letter to the city. But 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.600 her demands were like, well, you should fire people, Well 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:47.960 they don't work for the city. There y m c 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:52.000 a place. Um, well you should change your policy. Well 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.520 the policy is literally stayed law and you know a 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.480 bunch of things, so it's just you can't do this. Um, 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.680 So it's not really clear why this is all focusing 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:03.800 on the city because the city doesn't really have there's 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:05.800 not really any action that the city could take here. 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.760 On top of the dozens of people Julie lead in 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:14.639 giving public testimony, which largely consisted of transphobia, miss gender ring, 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:19.879 and baseless accusations that trans people are pedophilic inherently. But 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:23.760 that same day, August one, she also led a protest 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.040 outside of the y m c A. To learn more 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:31.160 about this, I talked with Cass and Raven, who are 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:35.720 both part of a local affinity group. The first protest 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.800 was August first, and they announced that they'd be back 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.440 the same time on the second, third, and fourth, So 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:48.919 the second drew a much larger counter protest um, and 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.840 then a lot of the same people who were there 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.159 on the second came back the third and fourth, but 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:58.359 there was nobody to counter protest against because the protesters 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:02.440 gave up and went home after one day when they 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:06.600 saw the kind of backlash they were facing, And most people, 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.159 I think, thought that was the end of it, But 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:14.160 people who do this kind of thing more often realized 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:18.360 that this was more likely the vibe of the beginning 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.800 stages of something bigger. A lot of red flags went 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:23.920 off when we found out they were protesting at a 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.800 city council meeting planning to come back the following week. Oh, 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:29.600 that's right. That was The other thing was the council 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.360 meeting on the first, where there was a lot of 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.560 public comment logged. It seemed to us like this was 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:44.560 going to escalate further, but other people um tended to 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:46.919 feel that it was going to be a quick, you know, 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:50.200 one and done type thing with how fast the news 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.919 cycle picks up a new issue. And I think it 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.480 was probably about a week later on the council meeting 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.920 on the eighth, because by that point we knew about 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:05.680 the planned urf action on the fifteen. That's when it 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.080 started to click for a lot of people that this 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.879 was going to become a bigger thing. But I don't 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.520 think anybody, including us, thought it was going to become 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:21.000 an ongoing issue. When I searched Court Townsend on Twitter 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:25.080 and saw trending hashtags on a wall of anti transferator, 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:46.639 a lot of red flags went off. Since the city 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:50.320 council public comments, the y m c A had started 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:54.560 receiving threatening phone calls, and Jamen had been returning to 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:59.880 facility nearly daily with some friends to protest, approaching everybody 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.600 coming in and out of the pool and talking about 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:06.240 how men are allowed in the locker room and bearing 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.640 signs that miss gendered the employee. Julius group had said 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:11.439 they were going to be picketing every day at the 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.800 pool that week. Um that they showed up and they 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.520 were about a hundred counter counterprochesters isn't even really the 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:22.280 right word, um people that were there. Was sort of 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:26.679 like a little pride parade there and um, Olympic Pride 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:28.640 had a kind of a booth table set up and 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.960 we're handing out pride flags and the Social Justice group 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:35.840 from the kof had a um, you know, standing on 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:38.639 the side of love banner, and there were kids blowing 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:40.880 bubbles and and it was just it was much more 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:42.680 of it. Just kind of a lot of people here. 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:46.359 As these initial picket style protests were happening in front 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.840 of the y, the head of the Jefferson County Transgender 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:53.720 Support Group called some friends and assembled this sort of 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:57.560 counter protest to voice their support for the trans employee 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.640 and the y m c A, which resulted in this 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:06.199 gay s trans rights party massively overshadowing Julie gemmen and 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:11.159 her friends little protest. As she was getting outnumbered in person, 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:15.760 Julie took to alternative tactics by getting in touch with 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:19.879 media outlets that will give her a soapbox, resulting in 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:24.639 a new wave of harassment targeted at the y. There 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:26.800 were about a hundred people and it was I think 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:29.760 it was Julian one or two other people, and people 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:32.439 had some conversations with Julie, and it sort of seemed 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:33.960 like that was going to be the end of it. 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:38.040 And the next day the pool was closed and about 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:43.280 fifty trans Right supporters showed up and nobody showed up 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:46.960 to pick it, and the pool was closed because pool 0:23:47.000 --> 0:23:51.800 employees were receiving death threats and just so much harassment. 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:54.320 They basically couldn't use their phones because the phone lines 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:58.040 were jammed and voicemails were filling up in fifteen minutes. 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:01.160 Things like that, um so, and then the pool ended 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:03.679 up staying closed, I think from the third which was 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:06.680 a Wednesday, all the way through that week and the 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:08.840 and the following week, and it was just kind of 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.359 a safety issue of not wanting to have children present 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:15.840 for day camps and patrons there if they were going 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:18.960 to be harassed right after, I think probably on Monday, 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:23.480 the first um of August, Julie reached out too. There's 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:27.320 a local sort of far right blog site called the 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:30.600 Port Townsend Free Press that isn't really a newspaper a 0:24:30.600 --> 0:24:32.600 news source at all. It's it's kind of this this 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:36.760 one guy, Jim James Guarantino's blog, and she reached out 0:24:36.760 --> 0:24:41.040 to that, and he did an article That first Portstownsend 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:45.320 Free Press quote unquote article came out to August two 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:50.240 and served as a mouthpiece for Julie's inflammatory version of events, 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:55.879 coupled with some conservative transphobia. More reputable news outlets and 0:24:55.960 --> 0:24:58.879 local press didn't really cover the story until it had 0:24:58.920 --> 0:25:02.280 already turned into a idle topic on the right, which 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:05.600 means there was over a week where the only documented 0:25:05.720 --> 0:25:09.160 right up of the incident was the Port Townsend Free 0:25:09.160 --> 0:25:13.800 Press blog post. Two days after that piece was published, 0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:18.280 Andy Knows the Post Millennial posted an article largely pulling 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:22.320 directly from the Port Townsend Free Press right up, and 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:25.920 that was just the start. The next day, August five, 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:29.359 Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire did an article about Julie 0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:34.000 Gammond and the danger of men watching little girls undressed 0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:37.800 in the locker room. Later that night, the story was 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:42.600 on Laura Ingram's Fox News show, citing reporting from the 0:25:42.640 --> 0:25:46.080 Post Millennial, which of course cited their reporting from the 0:25:46.160 --> 0:25:49.840 Port Townsend Free Press. And across the country in Washington 0:25:49.920 --> 0:25:52.920 State we found perhaps the most maddening story of the week. 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:57.160 An eight year old grandmother was banned there from her 0:25:57.359 --> 0:26:00.480 y m c A after demanding that a bio logical 0:26:00.600 --> 0:26:05.240 mail leave the woman's locker room where little girls were undressing. 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:10.000 They then went to play clips of Julie's public comment 0:26:10.160 --> 0:26:15.480 at the city council meeting, amplifying Julie's ever changing, altered 0:26:15.600 --> 0:26:19.520 version of events. Now on the national stage, I think 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:24.240 the mainstream actual, you know, real local newspapers didn't pick 0:26:24.280 --> 0:26:27.760 it up until the seventh or the tenth, respectively, for 0:26:27.760 --> 0:26:31.080 the Peninsula Daily News and the Leader, and that gap 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:34.919 when they amplified it out to the larger right wing press. 0:26:35.000 --> 0:26:37.040 This got picked up by Bright Barty, got picked up 0:26:37.040 --> 0:26:40.400