Gillette residents speak out on recreation center's locker room policy

GILLETTE — Monday afternoon, dozens of Campbell County residents showed up to a local board meeting to voice their thoughts and concerns. But this time, their words weren't directed toward the Campbell County Public Library.

It was the Campbell County Parks and Recreation Board that had a packed house. It was standing room only at the parks board’s meeting Monday as more than 20 people spoke out about a proposed locker room policy for the Rec Center.

Vicki Swenson said she felt the policy was “very respectful,” and that she felt comfortable going into the universal changing area.

Stephen Cannon said he didn’t have much to criticize about the policy.

“You threaded the needle on a third rail issue,” he said.

The policy has been in the works ever since an adult at the Rec Center reported seeing a transgender woman in the women’s locker room earlier in February.

The policy defines a person’s sex as their biological sex at birth, and it also includes definitions for male and female.

It designates the women’s locker rooms for “exclusive use” by a person “whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova and/or who exhibits XX chromosomes and does not exhibit a Y chromosome.”

And men’s locker rooms would be exclusively used by people “whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female and/or who exhibits XY chromosomes or who exhibits a Y chromosome.”

The policy states that these separate accommodations are “substantially related to the important governmental objectives of protecting the health, safety and privacy” of people.

A person who is unwilling or unable to use the locker room designated for their sex at birth will be provided access to the universal changing area, which includes single-occupancy restrooms.

The board didn’t take action on the policy Monday night. The public comment period runs through April 29, which is the date of the board’s next meeting.

Susan Sisti said that ever since news about the incident got out, “I change in the stalls, as do a lot of women now because we are afraid to change in public,” and added that there have been several instances of “men behaving badly” at the Rec Center.

“Men, it’s time you protected us,” she said.

Some didn’t like the idea of transgender people being allowed in the universal changing area.

Kasey Cook said his wife isn’t too excited about the “concept of converting the family changing area to the universal changing area.”

“We’ve got a number of kids … and I can just say it makes her very uncomfortable, less so than having a male person in the female changing rooms,” he said.

Dwayne Dillinger said that even though the area has been referred to as the family locker room in the past, it has been used, and continues to be used, by a wide range of people, not exclusively by families.

There are times of the day when it’s mostly families who use it, but other times it’s predominantly used by senior citizens.

For example, in the early mornings, the Rec Center is filled with people exercising before going to work. During that time, the universal changing area is used mainly by seniors.

But from 9-11 a.m., “we see seniors in the regular locker rooms,” Dillinger said, “because that’s the predominant group in the facility at that time.”

“It’s interesting how the dynamics in this facility change,” he said.

Cook said that a few years ago he went into the family locker room and was stopped by a Rec Center employee who didn’t know that Cook had family members in that area. This was a “very reasonable action,” Cook said.

“It’s not reasonable for single well-bodied men to be in areas where there’s women and children,” he said.

Lisa Mahylis said she’s used the universal changing area while she’s with her grandchildren, but she also has used it when recovering from surgery because there wasn’t enough room in the stalls in the women’s locker room.

She pointed out that many places have family restrooms separate from the men’s and women’s restrooms, and “we don’t flip out over that.”

Her husband, Jay Mahylis, said the police do a “fantastic job of meeting the needs of all Campbell County.”

Enforcement

Several people wondered how the policy would be enforced.

“Surely you’re not going to have county employees conduct genetic testing,” Karin Ebertz said. “I think there would be other methods that would be less intrusive.”

She suggested using people’s driver’s licenses or other forms of state-issued identification.

“I don’t think you need to go that far, as far as inspection, but it would be interesting to see, what is the enforcement plan?” Cannon said. “I’d be interested to see how much you guys are willing to enforce it.”

Ed Sisti said that the transgender person refused to use the family locker room when the option was offered.

“Let’s keep that in mind,” he said. “There are activists out there that are going to make issues. Is this going to prevent lawsuits? I don’t think so.”

This story was published on March 27, 2024.