A clothing-optional spa in California has sparked outrage among transgender protestors after one trans visitor said she was told to cover up during ‘Lady’s Night.’
‘It’s exclusion. It’s discrimination. It goes against everything that I came here for,’ Breath Mormorer, who joined demonstration outside the Russian-style bathhouse Archimedes Banya in San Francisco, told CBS News.
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The spa offers one women-only night and one men-only night each month. On its website, the spa said the events are designed to ‘shelter religious preferences’ of men and women in the community.
‘To further accommodate their religious beliefs we have to limit admission on [both nights] to sex assigned at birth,’ the site explains. A protester named Jordan told CBS News that the spa’s policy ‘set off some alarm bells for me.’
‘In a lot of pre-Christian Slavic cultures there was a lot of, gender and sexuality was much more fluid… and it was put down by the Christians,’ said Jordan, noting she is of Slavic origin.
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In response, the spa released a statement announcing an ‘Inclusive Women’s Night’ for all individuals who identify as women, regardless of sex assigned at birth.
The spa said it would still host a ‘Cultural & Religious Women’s Night’ open only to those assigned female gender at birth.
The spa said the religious night was ‘[d]esigned to provide a space that aligns with the needs of women from religious or cultural backgrounds who observe practices requiring a female-only environment based on sex assigned at birth.’
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Protesters said the move wasn’t a suitable compromise.
‘That response is really discriminatory when you think about it because if you had a night where you excluded, say a certain race, that would not fly and we’re just saying, trans-exclusive nights won’t fly,’ Jordan said.
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‘As Latinos, as trans, as queer, as African American, the fear is turned now. If you weaponize DEI and affirmative action and all these other things that were a benefit of everyone in America and you weaponize them against us, now I’m in fear,’ Austin said.
Demonstrators said they plan to continue to protest outside the spa until it allows trans guests every night of the month.
* Original Article:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14465171/amp/trans-protesters-clothing-optional-spa-bathing-suits.html?ito=smartnews