(The Lion) — A San Francisco spa has succumbed to pressure from trans activists – and legal threats – choosing to allow trans women at its women-only nights, as long as they keep their male genitals covered.
Archimedes Banya, a Russian bathhouse, became the subject of trans protests after it refused to allow activist Breath Mormorer, a trans-identified male, to disrobe at its once-a-month women’s only night, which is intended for women who have a cultural or religious objection to opposite-sex nudity. The spa allows cross-sex nudity on all other days.
The refusal led Mormorer and other trans activists to accuse the spa of bigotry.
The business then said it would compromise and hold monthly inclusive nights for women of all types, including trans women, and then continue to hold cultural and religious nights for biological women-only, but that still didn’t satisfy the opposition.
The liberal city’s Human Rights Commission launched an investigation to ensure “transgender people are protected from unlawful discrimination,” and legal pressure soon followed.
California law prohibits discrimination based on a person’s self-declared gender identity, pro-women news site Reduxx reports, leaving the spa with little choice but to accommodate the males or face possible legal action.
Archimedes then announced last week it would allow all types of women at its cultural and religious women’s nights but any transgender women who are biologically intact would have to keep their genitals covered.
The spa has said repeatedly it respects “the diversity of the Bay Area” but also wanted to provide a safe environment for women who for cultural or religious reasons, or because of past trauma, react negatively to seeing male genitals.
“The request for a phallic-free space is not about exclusion, it is about recognizing that some members of our community experience a different reaction to that part of the human body,” the company said in an initial statement. “Whether that reaction is based on personal history, trauma, cultural or religious beliefs, or simply comfort, it is valid.”
But soon after pressure from the city and activists, it changed course.
“We have come to the realization that the present moment is a critical time in history when people of transgender identity are in need of an abundance of support for their rights and freedoms,” the spa’s later statement said.
The controversy also highlights safety concerns when transgender women are allowed in women’s-only spaces.
One man protesting the spa and saying its prior decision put him “in fear” is a trans activist known as Dakota Rose Austin.
Previously he was known as Dwight Austin and was convicted of rape “by force or fear,” Reduxx reports. Within a year of the conviction, he began going by Dakota Rose.
Austin is a registered level 4 sex offender in California, which is considered moderate to high risk, and has an “above average risk” of reoffending.
But because of California law, and pressure from trans activists, Austin and other biological males will be allowed at the women’s-only nights.
Reduxx notes that Austin “has been canvassing for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)” which, in recent years “has filed dozens of lawsuits across the United States in defense of male criminals who claim to be transgender,” including many who are “sex offenders and violent killers.”
This month a federal judge in Indiana ordered the state to pay for sex change surgery for a convicted murderer in a case brought by the ACLU. The state is appealing the decision.
