An 82-year-old woman filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the City of Port Townsend in Washington state and a local YMCA after receiving a lifetime ban for speaking out against a male using the women’s locker room.
The Center for American Liberty filed a lawsuit on behalf of Washington state resident Julie Jaman, claiming the city’s and YMCA’s actions from a 2022 incident were “unlawful” and “shameful.” In the filing, Jaman is requesting that her ban be declared unlawful, that her pool privileges be restored and that she be awarded “compensatory, nominal, and punitive damages.” (RELATED: High School Used $10K Grant To Hand Out ‘Chest Binders’ At Local Pride Parade, Stock Library With LGBTQ Books)
“To this day, almost two years after the incident, Port Townsend and the YMCA have maintained the lifetime ban against Jaman from using the Pool. Defendants’ actions against Jaman were both unlawful and shameful,” the lawsuit reads.
“When an eighty-year-old woman reasonably believes she is witnessing a crime being committed against young girls in a women’s locker room, the government’s reaction should be to gather all of the facts and learn what happened, not immediately take sides in an ideologically charged political debate,” the lawsuit continues. “Defendants may not summarily punish Jaman for her speech in reaction to what she saw, nor may they defame her for speaking out.”
🚨LAWSUIT FILED🚨 Julie Jaman is suing the YMCA and City of Port Townsend—not only so she can swim at the City Pool again, but so she can advocate for safety and privacy for all women and girls. pic.twitter.com/zmCb3TVS5F
— Center for American Liberty (@Liberty_Ctr) June 12, 2024
In July 2022 Jaman visited the YMCA’s pool, which she had been using for nearly 40 years due to “her arthritis,” according to the filing. Following swimming, Jaman made her way to the bathrooms, both labeled by gender.
Upon entering the women’s restroom, Jaman began to take a shower when she reportedly heard a man’s voice in the locker room, later identified as “Clementine Adams,” a biological man. According to the lawsuit, Jaman claimed Adams, who was wearing a female swimsuit, was staring at “two young girls in swimsuits who appeared to be about four to six years old as they were preparing to use the toilet” and helping one of the children remove their suit.
Jaman confronted Adams as she noticed he had not been wearing “any form of identification indicating an affiliation with the YMCA,” asking the biological male if he had a penis before telling him to get out of the locker room. A YMCA employee was then involved in the incident, however, accused the then 80-year-woman of being discriminatory before banning her, according to the lawsuit.
“Jaman thought she was witnessing a crime in progress, so she spoke up as best she could under the circumstances: she told Adams to leave the women’s locker room. A YMCA staff person immediately entered the locker room, and Jaman asked the staff member to remove Adams. Instead, the staff person berated Jaman for her ‘discriminatory’ statements toward Adams and told Jaman on the spot that she was ‘banned for life’ from the Pool for objecting to Adams’s presence in the locker room,” the lawsuit states.
It is unclear when the city and YMCA plans to respond.
