Ladies and gentlemen. I step away from writing about women’s history to approach a state of our union as it now stands. A state of the union in regards to women’s rights, privacy, safety, security, and a sacredness of being a woman. It is hard for me to stay focused on the past, when right now, our rights are being violated across the country as we speak. I want to hear from you women about the experiences you have been forced to undergo, in our nation.

The House of Representatives, on February, the ninth of this year, introduced H.Res. 115: Establishing a Women’s Bill of Rights to reaffirm legal protections afforded to women under Federal law. This is something that every woman needs to know about and make sure that their U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators are on board with. Explain to them why this is important to you.

Here is my story. I am a member of the OSU (Ohio) Phillip Heit Fitness Center in New Albany, Ohio. The end of January, while brushing my hair and completely dressed, I look over and see a male in front of me in the locker room. In my 60+ year history, I have never once been in a bathroom or locker room and had to face seeing a male. I was in shock and disbelief. I had heard about these things happening but hoped that since I was paying $100/month for a luxury facility, I would not have to deal with such things. I went to the management, who appeared sympathetic. A week later, he produced a DEI policy from the university, (see below) and that was that. He even asked me if I was cancelling my membership. I needed to breathe. I did not. I determined instead that I would fight back, because I had a right to be there and be in that women’s locker room. He did not – policy or no policy – its common sense. I have since seen him one other time. This time, I had my towel wrapped around me and became extremely uncomfortable. I have approached DEI, just for shits and giggles – I did not expect them, her (ironically) to sympathize. I made her aware that her “inclusion” meant “exclusion” for women. I have filed a mandated child/elder report with the New Albany PD, as I am a licensed professional mental health therapist. They said it did not fit voyeurism because of the policy.

Let’s review policy. Did black people enjoy the benefits of the Jim Crowe Laws that began in the late 19th century and continued into the 1960’s? Did black people enjoy the policy of seeing signs saying “No Colored People Allowed?” Did they enjoy sitting in the back of the bus? The irony of this is that the OSU DEI person was not only a woman but a black woman. I would be willing to bet many DEI people across the country are minorities fighting to make sure they are “inclusionary.” I do not enjoy, feel safe, feel comfortable, or enjoy having my privacy violated for a tiny minority of people with mental health issues. These policies need to end. The US Supreme Court determined the other day that Affirmative Action is not Equality and will end. One small step.

Gender Dysphoria is a mental health issue. While we would not collude with schizophrenic hallucinations by listening and agreeing with them, we certainly should not be excluding women, biological women if I need to say this to be clear, from the privacy of their changing rooms, sports or bathrooms. Trans identifying people can do whatever they want, that is their business. As long as they are not harming children, influencing children, or invading women’s or even men’s spaces (though, to my knowledge no woman has been disrespectful enough of herself and men to walk into a men’s restroom or locker room – or sports team). When people have mental health issues, they need help. They do not need to be glamorized on TV or in the movies. It is not fun or funny to have a mental health issue. A small percentage actually cross over and get prosthesis put on their bodies, otherwise, they don’t. And, as such, they need to respect women, men and themselves and go to the lavatory of their biology.

What will it take for us to get our private spaces returned? Will we need to wait for a woman to be killed? Already, women have been attacked in bathrooms, raped, and according to a prison police officer that I spoke to, there were six women impregnated here in Ohio, because of men “identifying” as a woman and put in women’s prisons. Women in prison in Canada, spoke in an article about a trans male who was a child molester, and placed in the section with mothers and their children, as a babysitter. Who really has rights? Four children were removed by Children’s Protective Services in Boston, last week, after paramedics called to the scene, found several drag men in a filthy hovel, with these children, oh, and a dead body. Agatha Christie couldn’t have done better herself.

Muslim and some Jewish women are not allowed to remove their head garments, not to mention their clothing in front of a male. Does anyone care about this? We know what we talk about in the bathroom/locker room. These are conversations that we don’t want to have in front of a male who has no idea what it is like to be a woman. Identifying as whatever you want, does not make you that sex. It simply means you are in costume – in drag. Those of us who are seniors and are dealing with the aging body are not interested in being ogled by someone who wants to be us. They never will be. They will never understand. There is a sacred bond between women. There is a knowingness.

I think of the holocaust movies I have seen where men and women were thrown into a gas chamber, forced to strip naked in front of each other before the “showers” were turned on. Their last moments on Earth, they were completely humiliated before being annihilated. As a highly sensitive person, I have never been able to get this horrible image out of my head. Of course, this is just one of the many humiliated moments the Jewish people had to face before ultimate doom.

Women’s sports are no longer this. Now, a man who fails in men’s sports can just say he is a woman, and suddenly “Bob’s your uncle.” or Aunt he would expect you to say. Women fought long and hard to come up with Title IX which finally passed in 1972, thanks to Republican President Richard M. Nixon. Democrats love to say that President Wilson gave us the right to vote – ignoring the fact that his wife talked him into it, finally. So, we accomplished this in 72 and now, the Women’s Bill of Rights, above, was also initiated by Republicans in the House. Ironic, isn’t it? Where are all the feminists now? With Bob, now in women’s sports, women are losing in every sporting race around the world, to a failed male sportsman.

What would our ancestors say? Can you imagine your grandmother or great-grandmother having to change in a locker room with a male? To me, it just seems so dirty and repulsive. It was for myself when I had to undertake this shame, imposed upon me by “the” Ohio State University. I am a mother, grandmother, great-aunt, aunt, sister, and daughter. I am a woman and I have rights. All women have rights, this is what our ancestors fought for.

OSU not only said they will refuse to create a gender neutral space for this one male, they also said “We can’t force someone to use that restroom.” They can’t force him but they can force all of us to stand naked in front of a male. They also have yet to share with their members, this DEI policy or tell them, at my request, that this has already happened. The majority of our members are seniors. We have a handful of teens, of which he is one of them, and we occasionally have mothers bringing their children in the locker room to use the toilet after a swim class (the children are not supposed to be in there but as mothers, we don’t blink for a little kid who has to pee). A teen who has to leer at women, we do blink at.

My final concern is toward women who have been abused, especially sexual abuse by males. As a mental health professional, who specializes in working with PTSD survivors and writes immigrations evaluations for women (and men) who have faced atrocities around the world, triggered is a big word I teach. Imagine being kidnapped and tortured by a male, you come to the US and there you are in a fitness center, with a male standing in front of you. Imagine you are raped by a male, as a child, and there you are facing a male coming out of a shower in a locker room. These “inclusionary” policies are disrespectful and completely oblivious to the common sense of why this should not happen to women. I am stating the obvious over and over again. Women have a right to privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms. Women have a right to compete with women in sports. Women have a right to serve their punishment in the company of women. Women have a right to their own clubs (i.e., sororities, Girl Scouts of America, etc…). Women have a right to continue cherishing the sacredness of being a woman, with other women. We should not have to state “biological” in order to differentiate. We should not have to beg police, prison guards, universities, primary and secondary schools, school boards, and our local, state, and federal politicians to protect us. It should be a given. It was until something called a “pandemic,” in which the world went absolutely nuts.

Note: In the photo above, the email (handwritten) should be osu.edu not osumc.edu. This is the policy that, as of this writing, no email has been sent to members of our fitness center. Why the secrecy?