In June, the Wheaton Park District in Wheaton, Illinois issued a statement via both email messages and multiple responsive phone calls indicating that it had adopted a transgressive practice of allowing locker rooms and restrooms to be accessed by crossdressing persons.
In response to queries from community members, Director of Athletics and Facilities Daniel Novak wrote, “At Wheaton Park District facilities, patrons may use the restroom/locker room that corresponds with their gender identity.”
At a meeting in June, the Wheaton Park District Board of Commissioners and their unpleasant attorney Phillip A. Leutkehans confused the issue more by asserting that existing board policy that prohibits anyone over age 5 from using opposite-sex facilities has not been changed. Muddying the already-turbid waters, the following day, employees at both Wheaton Park District pools told community members again that “patrons may use the restroom/locker room that corresponds with their gender identity.”
A month ago, I left voicemail messages with Michael J. Benard, Wheaton Park District Executive Director, and Board Secretary, asking for clarification. He never returned my messages.
This Wednesday, July 19th, there is another Board of Commissioners meeting at 5:00 p.m. at the Wheaton City Council Chambers, 303 W. Wesley Street. Since it is unclear whether the board intends to address their multiple conflicting and confusing communications regarding the sexual integration of private spaces, I left a message for Mr. Benard—again—as well as emailed the entire board of commissioners. As of this writing, I have received no response.
Here are some things the board should understand if they’re wrestling with a decision about whether to allow cross-dressing men in the private spaces of girls and women:
- For girls and women, there is no difference between undressing in the presence of a man who accepts his body and undressing in the presence of a man who rejects his body.
- When a crossdressing man demands to use women’s private spaces, he is at once acknowledging the importance of privacy and modesty, which derive from physical embodiment (i.e., maleness or femaleness), and at the same time and incoherently denying the importance of privacy and modesty for the girls and women whose privacy he seeks to invade.
Let’s hope all members of the Wheaton community and surrounding communities who enjoy Wheaton Park District facilities, activities, and events will be as tenacious in defending women, children, and truth as leftists are in undermining respect for sexual differentiation and truth.
In my experience, leftists are far bolder and more tenacious in promoting injustice and lies than conservatives are in promoting justice and truth. But, judging from the remarkable attendance and comments at the last Wheaton Park District meeting, leftists may have met their match.