Notable cases
These cases were chosen to illustrate how claiming a female “gender identity” allows men to access female-only facilities, putting women at increased risk of sexual predation and harassment.
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Christopher Hambrook – Toronto, Canada
In 2012 Christopher Hambrook claimed to be a transgender woman called “Jessica”, in order to access two separate women’s shelters. During his stay, he sexually harassed and assaulted a deaf homeless woman, and a victim of domestic violence. In 2013 he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault, and one count of criminal harassment.
Prior to gaining access to the shelters, Hambrook already had a history of sexual predation. In 2002, he assaulted a 5-year-old girl, and a 27-year-old woman with learning disabilities. He received a total of 4 years in jail for those crimes.
This case demonstrates how a serial sexual predator can claim a female “gender identity” in order to prey on vulnerable women. In Toronto, any man who self-identifies as female must be accepted as female, which means services like women’s shelters cannot turn away men like Hambrook. Questioning someone’s self-declared “gender identity” in Toronto constitutes a human rights violation.
Hambrook was jailed indefinitely for his crimes.
Toronto Sun – Toronto Sun – update
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Colleen Francis (Clay Scott Francis) – Olympia, USA
In 2012 Colleen Francis, a 45-year-old retired military man who now identifies as a woman, accessed the recreational facilities at Evergreen College. While using the women’s locker room Francis was observed displaying his male genitalia. The locker room is used by a high school girls swim team and a children’s swim academy, who both practice in the college pool.
A 17-year-old girl complained to her mother about seeing a naked man walking around the locker room. The girl’s mother filed a police report. A children’s swim coach also observed Francis in the sauna, spreading his legs so his genitals were exposed. She asked him to leave. She also filed a police report, and explained that girls age 6 – 18 were using the facilities.
Francis insisted he had the right to expose his genitals to little girls in the women’s locker room, and the school agreed. An Evergreen College spokesman stated “The college cannot discriminate based on the basis of gender identity.” Francis was allowed to keep using the facilities. The college strung up a curtain for the girls to huddle behind, so they might change in and out of their bathing suits without being leered at.
A middle-aged man displaying his genitals to little girls in public would usually be considered indecent exposure. However, if the man claims a female “gender identity,” it becomes his right.
FOX News Radio – KIRO 7 – Daily Mail – Letter to Evergreen College PDF
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“Carlotta” Sklodowska Planet Fitness – Midlands, USA
In 2015 a woman, Yvette Cormier, was startled by a man in the women’s locker room at a Planet Fitness gym. Cormier reported that she was “stunned and shocked … He was not dressed like a woman at all.” She complained to management, but Planet Fitness informed her that a man can use the women’s locker room if he has a self-reported female “gender identity.” Cormier proceeded to warn other women about the man in the locker room. Apparently this violated the gym’s “no judgement” policy, and Planet Fitness revoked her membership and banned her from the facilities.
Later, someone calling himself “Carlotta” Sklodowska came forward to the media as the man in question. He admitted he was not a member of the gym. He claimed on two occasions he hung up a bag in the women’s locker room and left it there for a duration of time. It is odd for someone to leave an unattended bag in an open locker room, and it is highly suspicious behaviour considering hidden cameras have already been discovered in Planet Fitness facilities, and there exists a whole genre of pornography based on real hidden camera footage recorded in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.
According to Sklodowska’s social media accounts, he does not live as a woman full-time and takes no hormones. He is a fetishistic crossdresser and a member of the sado-masochistic community.
This case demonstrates how a man with a crossdressing fetish can access female-only facilities and behave in a suspicious manner without repercussions. It shows how a woman who warns other women about creepy men in female-only spaces may find that she is the one punished and banned, instead of the man.
Yvette Cormier is currently suing Planet Fitness for damages.
WNEM – MLive – Zoey Tur VIDEO – GT Comment
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Anonymous MTF – Toronto, Canada
In 2014, the following letter was published in a Canadian newspaper’s advice column:
I am a senior woman. Recently, a “man” claiming to be transgender, who had not yet begun physical treatments, was permitted by our local Y to use the women’s locker room. There are no secure change rooms. The person they allowed in was not courteous and stared at me while I struggled out of a wet bathing suit. He was naked, had an erection and playfully asked ‘do you come here often?’ I understand that gender is no longer judged solely by genitalia, but does a brief contact with the duty manager mean that men not yet committed to gender reassignment are free to disrobe anywhere they choose?
After this letter was published, transgender activists claimed that the complaint was a hoax made up by conservatives. The newspaper responded by publishing this rebuttal:
“I can tell you I have telephoned and talked to the North York woman whose name is on the email sent to Star ethics columnist Ken Gallinger in October. I have also confirmed that the YMCA of Greater Toronto received a similar letter from a former member in late fall. Last week, an executive of the organization contacted the same North York woman I talked with.
If this woman’s letter was a hoax perpetuated by organized forces opposed to transgender rights, as many in the transgender community through North America and beyond have declared with all certainty, then it is indeed a grand and elaborate one played on both the Star and the YMCA.
The woman would not agree to come forward publicly for this column. She spoke confidentially to me, in line with her expectation of confidentiality in the ethics column. “I am asking the Star to protect my privacy,” she said. “I would not rest easy if any group decided to approach me personally.”
She told me she is 70. She said the incident she described in her letter to Gallinger in which a naked “man” claiming to be a transgender woman behaved inappropriately happened “a couple of years ago” in the late afternoon in the women’s locker room of the Toronto Y on Sheppard Ave.
She said she shared her concerns with the Y manager at the time but felt she was not taken seriously. She said the branch manager contacted her in the fall after she sent her letter and she was again contacted by a senior executive of the Y following publication of the Star column.”
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Paul Ray Witherspoon – Dallas, USA
In 2012 at Dallas Parkland Hospital a female patient was startled by the presence of man in the women’s restroom. The man was wearing a GPS ankle band used for tracking high-risk parolees. The woman contacted police. The man, 56-year-old Paul Ray Witherspoon, told police that he had the right to use the women’s restroom as he had a female “gender identity,” though his driver’s license listed him as male. The officer ticketed Witherspoon for disorderly conduct.
Witherspoon is a child sexual predator and registered sex offender, having been convicted in 1990 of sexually assaulting two teenage girls. He violated his parole in 2011 for sending nude pictures of himself over the internet. He told NBC in an interview that his prior sexual convictions should not prevent him from being allowed to access female-only facilities reserved for women and girls.
Lambda Legal, an LGBT legal organization, agrees with Witherspoon. A representative said “If all the person is doing is using the bathroom in a way that is consistent with the gender that they live in day in and day out, that is not a crime.”
This case demonstrates how serial sexual predators can use claims of a female “gender identity” in order to argue for the right to access female-only spaces. It’s also an example of a progressive organization backing the “rights” of a sexual predator, at the expense of women and girls, and their right to avoid sharing private facilities with male sexual predators.
TRANSGENDER CRIME 