A Washington state mother says she walked in on an adult man showering in the women’s locker room at a public recreation center while her daughter competed in a children’s swim meet, the New York Post reports.
Maria Varchetto said the July 12 encounter happened at the Lynnwood Recreation Center near Seattle, where her daughter regularly swims. “Right before my daughter’s first race, I went into the women’s locker room to use the restroom,” Varchetto said, describing an open shower area with two stalls whose curtains, she said, are “too narrow for the width of the shower opening” and “often slide back open on both sides with movement or from the water hitting them.”
Walking past the stalls, Varchetto said she saw “what appeared to be an adult male’s exposed, erect penis through the gap in one of the shower curtains,” calling the sight unexpected and unsettling. On her way back out, she said the same thing happened again — this time with another mother and her young daughter standing nearby at the sink. That’s when Varchetto said something. “I said, ‘Excuse me, this is the women’s locker room,’” she recalled. The person did not respond.
Varchetto reported the incident to the front desk, and a facility manager went in to confront the individual, telling them, “Excuse me, are you confused? This is the women’s locker room.” The reported reply: “I’m trans.” The manager then left.
Lynnwood city spokesman Nathan MacDonald confirmed the complaint, saying staff “conferred with both parties” and that the center’s facilities comply with a Washington administrative code requiring gender-segregated spaces to admit people according to their gender identity or expression. The city said it has since installed new full-sized shower curtains and is “exploring other modifications” to protect patron privacy.
Varchetto said she no longer lets her daughter use the women’s locker room without supervision, instead sending her to one of the facility’s few family locker rooms — something she said her daughter feels guilty about, since families with small children are often waiting to use them.