This Wednesday in Santee, California, residents packed into a City Council meeting to debate a local YMCA's locker room policy after a 17-year-old girl said she felt unsafe when a transgender woman undressed in the women's locker room, CBS 8 reports.
The transgender woman at the center of the debate, 66-year-old Chrystynne Wood, spoke at the meeting and said she's not a threat to anyone. Weeks earlier, 17-year-old Rebecca Philips said she felt "terrified" when she saw what she thought was a naked man in the women's locker room at the Santee YMCA.
Wood accused Phillips of spreading "lies and a hateful political agenda."
"The amount of organized hatred and lies vilifying and dehumanizing me and other members of the transgender community has truly been disgusting and disheartening," said Wood, who told the audience she has fully transitioned from male to female.
"I am a threat to no one," she added, "And the last year I have been a member of the Y, children have attended summer camp, and have been with their parents and grandparents in the women's locker room with me and there has never ever been an incident ever!"
Wood had a group of supporters at the meeting who spoke out in her defense.
"I would feel incredibly comfortable with my children in the locker room with Chrissy," said one supporter.
"The trans community has watched this unfold and they have been a victim to this harm," added another. "If we want to protect women and children we need to focus on how hate deeply wounds us."
Others who opposed the YMCA's locker room policy spoke out as well.
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"I am a woman and I say no more to men gender-appropriating women," said one.
"This is a war on women, children and the truth, capital T," said former Miss California Carrie Prejean, "And the enemy is disguised in high heels, lipstick and a shaved beard."
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