D.C. Pool Staff Reportedly Misgenders Trans Kids, Call Them “Perverts And Pedophiles”

The kids were also reportedly threatened with a pair of scissors.
From: NewNowNext

 A group of transgender youth who visited the public Banneker Pool in Washington, D.C. last July say they were misgendered by pool staff, called “pedophiles and perverts,” and threatened with a pair of scissors.

Lovely Hicks, a youth program coordinator at the LGBTQ non-profit Casa Ruby, explained to DCist that Casa Ruby staff were taking kids from their summer program to the pool “to have fun,” and because “half of them had never been to the swimming pool as women, so it meant a lot to them.”

However once inside, Hicks claimed employees repeatedly misgendered the kids and directed them to the men’s restroom when they asked for directions.

When the kids asked where the women’s restroom was, an employee told them it “doesn’t matter where women’s room is, you are men and should use the men’s bathroom,” according to Casa Ruby trans ambassador Nona Conner.

Conner says she submitted her ID, which states that she is female, to enter the pool but was told it was “the law” for the entire group to use the men’s restroom.

Later, Conner claims Banneker staff and lifeguards were harassing the Casa Ruby kids once again when they took shelter from the rain in the clubhouse.

“The female staffer [who misgendered the group] and other lifeguards were in a back room but you could see directly inside,” said Conner. “They were laughing, joking, making indirect comments, calling us pedophiles and perverts.”

“They started to call transgender youth men and were taunting them. The way staff were handling it made the youth think, ’Is it wrong to be who we are? Why do we always have to be the center of the laughter?'”

Hicks added that the aggressive pool staffer also “picked up scissors and pointed them towards us like she was going to do something to us.”

D.C. Parks and Recreation (DPR) spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump confirmed that “a summer youth employee mistakenly misdirected patrons to the restroom” but denied claims that it was hostile or transphobic.

Instead, Crump points to a police report that claims the trans youth were harassing pool employees by arguing with them:

“The complainant was sitting in the pool area and two suspects began taking pictures, exhibiting aggressive behavior. A verbal altercation ensued between the complainant and suspects and a witness attempted to intervene. The complainant and witness both believed statements made by the two suspects were threats to do bodily harm. The two suspects had left the scene prior to MPD arrival.”

“It’s clear that we didn’t come to a pool to get into an argument with some lifeguards,” said Conner. “That wasn’t the objective of the day. We wanted to have fun in the pool.”