Ohio House of Representatives Higher Education Committee Meeting October 18, 2023 -- Proponent witness written testimonies
- Anonymous
- Oct 18, 2023
- 9 min read
DETAILED ANALYSIS Single-sex facilities and accommodations The bill requires school districts, community schools, STEM schools, chartered nonpublic schools, educational service centers (ESCs) and institutions of higher education to designate certain facilities for single-sex use.1 Specifically, each student restroom, locker room, changing room, or shower room that is accessible by multiple students at the same time must be designated for the exclusive use of students of either the male biological sex or the female biological sex.2 Additionally, districts, schools, and ESCs are prohibited from permitting members of the female biological sex to share overnight accommodations with members of the male biological sex and vice versa
Proponent testimony written by Kateisha Young
Good day to you, and please forgive my absence? I am battling a severe depressive disorder that has been further exasperated by what I am about to share with you.
My experiences render me certain that, whether a person can tell a person’s gender by looking at them or not, the rules should be abided.
Darren, a man who introduced himself as Rachel, broke the rules. Furthermore, he revealed his predatory disposition by grooming and assaulting me in the winter of 2022.
I had befriended Darren with the motivation to uplift him. I was pro-trans-rights then, and would say I still am. Hearing that, you might notice I use his biological pronouns and, what some may refer to as, his “dead name” to address him; please, allow me to explain why before you decide I’m simply transphobic.
Titles, initially, became a rather troubling issue when my assault case was closed due to the fact the reporting officer could not find the assailant within his database using the name “Rachel,” as it wasn’t a legal name.
Regardless, I don’t have the urge to blame “trans” for where I found myself after, while at a coffee date, what was meant to be a friendly, comforting hug turned into a biological man’s fingertips penetrating the roughly quarter-inch thick suede of a long coat to enter my vagina.
I don’t believe someone who’d been honest when telling me they are a transwoman who is only interested in men would have violated a woman in such a way.
Thus, being pro-trans-rights and, dare I say, the victim of sexual assault, I must protect the truly loveable transsexuals who enrich my life through appropriate gestures of friendship and family by recognizing they cannot be ranked among someone exuding predatory behaviors.
Although young girls' cries for protection against his rule-breaking behavior in what's advertised to be their safe space seems sufficient, here I am… a tragic reality reiterating the many parents’ pleas, saying, “This has gone too far.”
The simple fact is Xenia Y attendees wouldn’t be involved in this hearing had Darren not exemplified predatory behavior… Strutting about the locker room naked, speaking to obviously uncomfortable young girls naked, roaming up and down the rows of lockers naked, and approaching my own adult female coworker, who prefers to remain anonymous, while she was cutting an abandoned lock off a locker (I’m sorry to say, again, Darren did this, and persisted after being turned away several times, “naked as a jay bird,” as my coworker put it).
In the back of our minds, we know every law is taken advantage of, and, like street dealers abuse the right to bear arms, sexual predators will abuse trans rights; the way I see it, both transsexuals and the opposite are at risk of being victimized by the sexual predator.
We all know that no one is going to check birth certificates in most cases. If they look female and enter the women's restroom and use it appropriately without causing suspicion, no one will care or raise issues. Yet, there should be something protecting the innocent in case something does happen and deterring acts of violence and harassment before they happen. This new bill does both of those things. Please, be reasonable and care for the lives of women and girls… that they don’t end up like me… juggling endless therapy sessions and day-to-day recourse for holding myself accountable for putting myself in a position of vulnerability with a sexual predator identifying as a transwoman?
My name is Kateisha Young, employee at the YMCA, and I thank you for hearing my testimony.
Proponent testimony written by Janell Holloway
During the fall of 2022 many women and girls started to come forward with reports of uncomfortable experiences in the locker room with Darren which they reported to police. The ripple effect of just one individual with predatory behavior can be traced back over time and it appears that Darren used women and girls to fuel his sexual addiction. We can now see just how many different families have been adversely affected. Darren's targets included:
● Women like myself having actual uncomfortable encounters in the locker room,
● a YMCA employee who he allegedly grouped,
● a mom having to protect her teenage daughters from seeing Darren naked,
● a ten year old girl being in the women’s locker room alone, without her parents, with Darren when he was naked,
● a high school swim-team having to alter their schedule and patterns and not use the locker room for their entire swim season to protect their athletes
● Many families dropping their YMCA memberships, deciding it’s not worth the risks The list keeps growing because no one has been willing to step up to protect women and girls.
In December of 2022, Darren was charged with three counts of indecent exposure and a bench trial occurred in Xenia on March 21, 2023. I was a witness at the trial and I cooperated fully with the prosecutor and instructions from the Court in the months leading up to the trial. It was a very awkward and uncomfortable experience, being escorted to the front of the courtroom approximately 10 feet away from Darren Glines, seeing him for the first time in months since the locker room incident, talking about my locker room experience while he was just staring at me a few feet away and not having to answer any questions at all.
On May 1st, 2023 Judge David McNamee ruled that Darren was innocent of indecent exposure because his body fat covered his genitals. The judicial system failed me and all women and girls that day who use the YMCA locker room. The leadership of our YMCA discriminated against me as a woman and now a judge had just given his stamp of approval with his decision and seeming affirmation of men having full access to women's locker rooms at the YMCA. The following two days after the judges ruling were two of the hardest days of my life. I felt an anger towards the judge and the leadership of the Y that I didn’t even know I could feel. It felt like no one was willing to tell Darren Glines “NO!”
After several days of working through my anger and frustrations at the judge’s decision, I decided I need to continue to speak out against the YMCA and the policies that put women and girls in our community in danger. Staying silent would be so much easier but I have 3 granddaughters in Xenia who are seven, five and four years old. They have all been in the locker room with me and would have never known to turn their back on Darren Glines. After the trial in March, I wrote a lengthy letter to Darren for my victim/witness impact statement. I intended to have it read at a sentencing hearing to Darren, so that others who are in his life currently would know what I, his former tennis coach, wrote to him. I mailed the letter to him at the end of May and have not heard any response from him or know if Darren has even read my letter.
Sexual predators looking for ways to gain access to women and girls will use places like a YMCA and their “all-inclusive” policies to gain access to young girls. This is what Darren Glines was and could still be doing at our local YMCA’s. Any male sexual predator or pedophile can now walk into a YMCA to gain free access to women and girls in a locker room. The Women’s sign on the door means nothing.
I ask you to pass House Bill 183 to protect the safety of women and girls in the state of Ohio from the evil actions of predators and pedophiles who have access to them in women’s spaces, a place where women and girls are most vulnerable and need the highest levels of protection. Thank you.
I am happy to answer any questions
Janell Holloway
Proponent Testimony Written by Angelina Drollinger
Angelina Drollinger
Testimony to the Higher Education Committee
Request to Support House Bill 183
October 18th, 2023
Greetings Chair Young, Vice Chair Manning, Ranking Member Miller, and Members of the House Higher Education Committee,
Thank you for serving the people of Ohio. My name is Angelina Drollinger. My husband and I and our 5 children moved to Ohio a little over 7years ago. We love making beautiful Ohio our home sweet home. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share my story - my family’s story - with you.
On Monday, November 7th, 2022, some time after 3 in the afternoon, I encountered a man in the ladies’ locker room at the YMCA in Xenia, Ohio. I and two of my daughters, who were 16 and 13 at the time, had been swimming at the YMCA pool and returned to the locker room for showers. I left the shower stalls (thank God I was fully dressed) before my girls were done and I went to the locker area. There was a naked man in the locker bay across from mine. He was completely naked and facing out. His very large belly covered his privates in the front. Terrified I took a few steps back and called out for my girls to not leave their shower stalls.
I began finishing my personal preparations, putting on my shoes, and brushing my hair. I was absolutely shaking inside and for lack of a better word, freaking out. My heart was racing, panicky, being too frightened to speak to him while he was naked, I waited for the man to finish dressing, then I confronted him. In part I told him I thought he would feel more comfortable in the family locker room. He stormed out and said he was going to talk to the director. After waiting a few minutes, when I felt like it was safer, I called to my girls and told them they could come out of the showers.
On Thursday, November 10th my husband Paul, and I, and our girls met with Kim Sheehan, the director of the Xenia YMCA and Dale Brunner, President of the Greater Dayton YMCA.
Before meeting with the YMCA leadership I printed a copy of a document I found on their website that gave “5 Steps to Protecting Children.” (I have provided a copy of that document for you.) In speaking with them we were trying to make the YMCA aware of how they themselves were violating “Step 2 - minimize opportunity” by allowing men in these enclosed spaces with young girls.
During our meeting Mr. Brunner said that they were afraid of lawsuits and basically said that there was nothing they, the YMCA, can do to prevent a man from using the ladies’ locker room if he claims to be a woman. He gave us a paper (I have also provided a copy of that document for you.) citing US Supreme Court Case Bostock v. Clayton City, Georgia and the Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4112 as evidence that they have no legal grounds to prevent that man from using the ladies’ locker room, or apparently even asking him to use the family locker room.
We later found out that an entire girls swim team (that of Legacy Christian) was not using the ladies locker room for fear of encountering this man there. On November 25th I filed a complaint with Xenia police department about my encounter with this naked man in the ladies’ locker room. March 21st, 2023 I had to testify in the case against him. He was charged with public indecency. The man was later declared not guilty because no one could see his genitalia because he was too obese.
We have kept our YMCA membership and continue to use their facilities but with a great deal of fear. I am afraid this man will be there again. I am afraid another man will be there. I keep an extra guard over my girls when they come, never letting them enter the locker room alone or before me. I always check for men, especially when the girls are there with me. The joy is gone from our YMCA experience. We do not invite friends or family to come with us as guests or to join, because I do not feel safe there myself. I fear for the safety of the many little girls who use the YMCA locker room by themselves.
You often see a father or grandfather drop their little girl at the locker room door and meet them on the other side in the pool area. I wonder if parents and grandparents are aware that a full grown man could be in there at any time. I have heard it said that we have laws against public indecency and that this should be sufficient. It is obviously not. A woman should not have to share these private spaces with a man even if he has all of his clothes on. It is an invasion of our privacy. It goes against common decency. It jeopardizes our safety. It creates a perfect opportunity for abuse. These are areas that are designed to be secluded, and women of all ages, let alone little girls, should not be forced to share these spaces with men.
I am asking you to support House Bill 183 so that you can help provide the tools we need to protect women and children’s privacy and safety.
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