The City of Sandpoint might revise its nondiscrimination code this week after community outcry stemming from the YMCA's women's locker room.
According to a Facebook post from Bonner County Republican Chair Scott Herndon, a female lifeguard at the Litehouse YMCA saw someone she assumed to be a transgender woman in the women’s locker room.
She asked the front desk to remove them. YMCA staff said they couldn’t do anything about it per company policy. So the lifeguard called 9-1-1. The police allegedly also told her there were no laws being broken.
The post and subsequent misinformation caused community outcry that quickly reached Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm.
“The shocking piece to me was that the YMCA stated that ‘We allow this,’ effectively, or ‘this is occurring because of Sandpoint's nondiscrimination code,'" he said.
In a statement, the YMCA said that "on October 15, a Y employee contacted a supervisor to question whether a patron was allowed to use the women’s locker at the YMCA in Sandpoint."
It also said an internal review determined the YMCA's locker room use is currently in line with Sandpoint law.
It added that the Y is dedicated to maintaining safe environments through continuous sex offender registry checks for all members and mandated reporting of abuse.
A decade-old piece of Sandpoint law makes discrimination a misdemeanor and establishes that a city board will review relevant accusations.
But Grimm says this shouldn’t involve local government, because it “ends up inserting the city into an issue that is really one for the Supreme Court and the federal and state legislators," he said. "I see only risk for the city venturing into this arena—litigation risk, inconsistency risk, polarization risk.”
That’s why Grimm is introducing an ordinance that will remove specific city action. It would simply align the city with any and all federal and state nondiscrimination laws.
The LGBTQ group Sandpoint Alliance for Equality opposes the measure, saying it weakens discrimination protections.
Sandpoint City Council will vote on the ordinance Wednesday night.
