Day 1

We were taking my one-year-old grandson to the local YMCA to go swimming. It’s the only public pool in town. My wife was doing a shift as lifeguard, helping to keep the pool open as they struggled to find enough staff.

By the way, they told her, they were expecting some kind of small protest out front, stemming from an incident with an angry customer a week earlier—some kind of confrontation regarding a transwoman in the women’s locker room.

At 11:30am I found myself out front talking to the woman at the center of the controversy. She was the only protester, standing alone with a sign that read, “Men Who Identify As Women Are Using The Women’s Shower/Dressing Room.” She had a clipboard with a petition.

I was the first person to walk up to her. She relayed a story about the vulnerability of women, the need to feel safe, and the fear she felt when she was naked in the shower and heard a man’s voice. Then, she said, she saw a man, in the shower, staring at little girls who were changing. Her story sounded positively creepy. How can this be? she wondered.

I had already been briefed a little. The state law, since 2016, allows transgender people to use the bathroom and locker room of their choice. The Y had been following this law since then. This woman had also been swimming there since then. When I asked her what solution she wanted, she said that was up to the Y.

A few other people joined the “protest” on both sides: a “journalist” from the “Port Townsend Free Press”, another woman with a sign that said “Women’s Rights”, and a few LGBTQ supporters.

As more Y supporters arrived with detailed knowledge of the incident, it soon became clear that the woman’s initial story left out some key details.

I learned, for example, that the transwoman (between her freshman and sophomore years in college) was actually a Y staff member doing their job, shepherding two girls in the youth program thru the locker room with another staff member.

It also came out that the transwoman was not naked or showering at the time (though, legally, she could have been).

And it came out that the woman had so verbally assaulted the staff member – demanding, in front of the little girls, if she had a penis – that the Y had evicted and banned her from the premises. The Y would later add that this was not the first time the woman had violated their policies.

At this point my son’s girlfriend, at the Y with our family, provided an observation of moral clarity. She said, “This woman is not having this discussion in good faith.”

A few more people came. The discussion deteriorated from our original faux search for common ground to agree-to-disagree to name-calling.

The police, whose station is fifteen feet away in the adjacent building, had left their doorway and gone back inside. We left.

~~~

Day 2

The “journalist’s” article came out in the “Port Townsend Free Press”, a right-wing blog that poses as a legitimate newspaper. At the protest, he portrayed himself as a real journalist, asking people if they’d like to “make a statement.”

The article tells the story from the woman’s point of view, in great detail, with many paragraphs emphasizing women’s safety. The premise of the argument is that they have a reasonable fear that a transwoman could be a sexual predator, or could be a man posing as a transwoman simply to get access to the women’s locker room to attack women. The article was also dismissive of the concept of transgender people in general, continuing to use male pronouns for transwomen. Their strategy was clear: to use women’s safety as a wedge issue, pitting two marginalized groups, women and transgender people, against each other.

An online search revealed that these talking points, employing the “vulnerable women” wedge issue, even describing right-wing activists as “feminists”, is a nationwide strategy of the far right. It appears that this argument was simply regurgitated here as if they had just thought of it.

It isn’t the first time that public swimming pools and women’s safety have been at the center of controversy. In the 1960s, public pools across the southern US were closed, even filled with dirt, rather than integrate. Thus was born the private country club and the gated community.

The woman in the locker room also played the naïve granny card, asking for help in understanding our changing societal culture. I don’t know if she was honest about that, but I’ll reply anyway. I get it, that human culture is changing, probably at an exponential rate. I struggle to keep up, and my kids can tell you my deficiencies. I would recommend to the woman from the locker room – and to anyone struggling with what is or is not socially acceptable – the words that a trainer once said to me when I worked at a homeless shelter. “If you forget all of our policies and principles,” he said, “just remember this: Be kind.”

If you don’t understand transgender people, if you don’t know any LGTBQ people, if you struggle to use the right pronouns, just relax and be kind. Most humans are nice. Most will respond positively to kindness. It is that simple.

~~~

There was a city council meeting that night. While the issue at hand involves the YMCA and a state law, the city owns the property. So they took public comment on the matter. I heard it was heated, with lots of public comment on both sides. Apparently the NextDoor email chat was similar. I should watch the whole meeting and read all the emails before I write about it, but I just don’t have the stomach for it. One thing about hate – it’s exhausting.

~~~

Day 3 and following

There were more protests the following days, which drew a few more people. I heard that Y supporters were always in the majority.

About this time, the Y began getting increasing numbers of angry phone calls and even death threats. These actually started before the first protest, suggesting they emanated from the protest planners, at least at first.  

~~~

Day 8

The Y shut down today. No swimming. Two staff members went in early to check the pool chemicals. In the brief time they were there, at 7 o’clock in the morning, they answered the phone twice. Both were angry calls or threats.

Here is the Y’s statement:

We have made the difficult decision to close the Jefferson County YMCA/Mountain View Pool for the remainder of the week. We apologize for any inconvenience. Not only have we been struggling with a shortage of staff but we have also been working to navigate the stress of receiving countless harassing and disturbing phone calls, voicemails, and emails – most of which have been from outside of the community.

In the midst of this really challenging time, the overwhelming response in support of our Y and in support of being an inclusive, welcoming place for all has given us hope. We are so grateful!

We plan on seeing you next week!

I get that closing for a week is a reasonable strategy to calm things down and wait until it blows over – and to possibly forestall a violent attack. But it’s still a concession to mob rule, allowing a kind of street Taliban to override state laws.

~~~

Day 9

Eight days after the first protest and threats, and there still hadn’t been a single news article about the situation from a reputable news source. Many in Port Townsend hadn’t heard a thing about it. But the story was going viral in far-right circles, generating death threats from all over the nation.

Here is where the story showed up this past week. These are all right-wing sources or tabloids. It isn’t hard to figure out where it all started. Most of the articles quoted the “Free Press” article verbatim and used its photographs.

Day 2: Port Townsend Free Press

Day 4: The Distance

Day 4: Port Townsend Free Press (another story), The Post Millennial

Day 5: Fox News (Laura Ingraham), Ben Shapiro (via Twitter), Daily Wire, KOMO News, KIRO Dori Monson Show

Day 7: Outkick

Day 8: Fox News, Behind the Line, KTTH, The Daily Mail (UK) (and apparently other UK right-wing outlets)

The right-wing press wasn’t limited to blogs and the resulting death threats; it included harassment of local social media groups. New members started joining local community Facebook groups, linking these right-wing stories. Their Facebook pages were filled with memes saying things like “My pronouns are Fuck and You” and “This is Murica, Bitches.”

Does this happen with every story that Dori Monson or Ben Shapiro or Fox News or the PT Free Press covers?

Finally, on Day 8, an unbiased story appeared in a regular newspaper that follows professional journalistic standards: The Peninsula Daily News. (This story is hyperlinked.) The article provides a balanced review of the incident, but does not include the closure of the pool, as that announcement likely came after it went to press.

~~~

Day 10

Finally, the Port Townsend Leader reported on the incident. The paper only comes out once a week. The story had just missed their press deadline earlier. It provided important framing of the incident, with perspectives from the Y, the police, and the mayor, as well as from the woman.

Here’s a quote from Mayor David Faber from the city council meeting, “Port Townsend is a welcoming community, and hate and discrimination have no place in this community. LGBTQ people, trans people in particular in this case, are entitled to basic respect, and they have not been receiving that in much of the commentary tonight, calling them ‘pedophiles’ and ‘rapists’ and ‘predators.’”

~~~

Day 12

Our mayor started getting death threats.

I’ve yet to hear of any of these people trying to change Washington’s state law.

 ~~~

Day 15

This evening, in the place where we usually have free concerts at the waterfront park across the street from city hall, there were dueling protests. I arrived after it was in full swing. The city police were augmented by state police. They had the street shut down. About four Antifa-wannabes, some about high school age, were dressed in full black, with masks and walkie-talkies and clubs. The cops followed them around. The atmosphere was festive, except in the front row, where it was argumentative. Approximately ten anti-trans protesters, with a Charlie Brown PA system, were speaking about sexual assaults and the danger that transwomen pose to women. Approximately three-hundred pride activists were chanting and singing to drown them out.

Only seventy people were allowed in the city council chambers. It was all performative, with no legal meaning, because the issue in contention is a state law. Nevertheless, the city council unanimously picked up the baton, supported the local trans population, and adopted this remarkable proclamation.

P R O C L A M A T I O N

WHEREAS, Washington state law protects the rights of transgender people to be free from discrimination and to enjoy all the privileges and protections granted to all people, including full enjoyment of public accommodations, employment, and participation in all aspects of civil life; and

WHEREAS, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law study found that transgender people 16 and over are four times more likely to be crime victims than cisgender people; and

WHEREAS, half of all transgender people are sexually abused or assaulted during their lifetimes according to the US Department of Justice; and WHEREAS, PBS News Hour reported that 2021 was the deadliest year for transgender people with a record number of transgender murder victims; and

WHEREAS, the FBI reported that hate crimes against transgender and gender nonconforming people increased 587% between 2013 and 2019; and

WHEREAS, the Williams Institute reports that 40% of transgender adults have attempted suicide in their lifetimes, 30% of transgender youth have attempted suicide in the last year, and transgender individuals are at a higher risk of suicide due to family rejection and discrimination; and

WHEREAS, Vanderbilt University found that transgender people are 11% less likely to have jobs than comparably situated cisgender men; and

WHEREAS, National Women’s Law Center reports that transgender individuals are twice as likely to live in poverty as the general US population; and

WHEREAS, many transgender people raise children, have grandchildren, and are the center of loving families;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, David J. Faber, Mayor of the City of Port Townsend, do hereby proclaim that the City of Port Townsend values our transgender residents and visitors and urges all residents and visitors to be respectful, welcoming, and kind to everyone regardless of gender identity. I further proclaim that discrimination and prejudice, in any form, particularly against transgender people, are unwelcome and have no place in the City of Port Townsend.

I heard that, among the public speakers at the city council meeting, all but one supported the Y.

The entire city council began to get death threats.

~~~

Day 17

The pool opened today. The transwoman who was targeted in the original incident has gone back to college; this was only a summer job for her.

~~~

Day 22

A little more on the angry calls and death threats. They continue to pour into the Y – over a hundred each day. The threat calls are turned over to the police, but apparently they come from burner phones, often from faraway places like Kentucky or Georgia.

Our friend from a suburb near Seattle told me her local high school got death threats after school administrators pivoted away from a “red, white, and blue” theme for a high school football game. That seemed to start with one angry parent and the Dori Monson show.

I searched the Y’s phone number on the internet. After a page and a half of the various services offered by the Y – youth camps, family camps, health workshops, job training, etc. – these two Twitter accounts came up, instructing people to harass the Y:

I’м Иот Д Яцssiди Бот (@BOTomatic_S854)

Os Durman (@DurmanOs)

I reported them both for “online harassment”, one of Twitter’s no-no’s. Twitter makes it extremely difficult to report someone like this. I had to specify the offending tweet in a small pop-up box that scrolled thru tweets a few at a time. But the offending tweets were two or three weeks ago, and these people post a hundred times a day. I gave up. Twitter said they didn’t violate any policy. Then I tweeted the issue directly to Twitter, where I could explain the harassment more clearly, cc’ing my local congressman. Twitter responded saying they had blocked Os Durman after all.

But now I see he’s back with a non-stop stream of trans hate, probably leading to more death threats somewhere else. I feel sorry for that community.

~~~

Day 24

Today the woman from the original incident gave an interview in the pool parking lot to a “film crew”. They then came into the YMCA, filming, asking to go into the locker rooms to film. They were denied. The police – still fifteen feet away in the adjacent building – were called to escort them out. No video-taping signs are now up everywhere.

The Port Townsend Leader came out today. Remember those dueling protests from Day 21? It turns out the anti-trans group claims they were physically and sexually assaulted during it. I was there. It seemed like a non-violent, albeit angry, protest to me. When one of the anti-trans people dropped their sign, I gave it back to them. It was that kind of atmosphere, at least where I was standing.

The police also said they were there – in force – and didn’t observe assaults of that nature. The right-wing side said they are considering suing the police department over it.

The woman apparently appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show, now attacking the local police department. They are getting death threats now too.

The Leader article closes with a hair-raising paragraph. The city has granted a permit to Robert Zerfing of Vancouver, Washington for a protest in Port Townsend. I looked him up online: Proud Boys; says the young woman who was hit by a car and killed at the Charlottesville, Virginia Neo-Nazi riot in 2017 actually died of a heart attack; says he would support Adolf Hitler, etc. He’s so bad that the local Trumpers, the ones who started this whole thing, “have disavowed the event, stating they disapproved of the date, format, language, and messaging of the protest.” That’s a relief – they draw the line somewhere, somewhere between death threats and Nazi rallies.

~~~

Seriously, it is a relief. This is a battle between a former ruling class that is losing influence due to demographic and societal changes. And they aren’t going out with a whimper. If they had more support, say in a more Red area, maybe they would openly support the Proud Boys. But somehow they’ve concluded that would tarnish their image.

I don’t know if there are any plans for a counter protest. Given that the local right-wingers are disavowing them, perhaps the best response is the cold shoulder. Obviously they are coming here to provoke. If they wanted a solution, they’d go to Olympia to petition for a change in the law. Or they’d hold a bake sale and raise money for better shower curtains. But I suspect they didn’t even consider those options.

Like the January 6 insurrection, we are somewhere between Rwanda, where private militias massacred thousands while the police and army looked the other way, and a small group of radicals that will fade in the face of civil society and democratic institutions. Or get locked up. For now democratic society is winning, but the mere fact that there are now militias that are household names, and that death threats have become a common political tool, is disconcerting. Extremely disconcerting. Because it means that small group of radicals is getting larger.

If laws are broken, these people must be prosecuted. Those who promulgate the death threats must be named, confronted, and arrested if warranted.

As for the rest of us, when in doubt, be kind.

~~~

Day 30

The Proud Boys came, only eighteen of them, and they were forced by their permit to remain inside a small chained link enclosure, sort of like a playpen. Hundreds gathered outside around them and blew bubbles. And then this sordid chapter ended, at least for now.