'A Threat To No One' Says Trans Woman At Heated Santee Council Meeting

SANTEE, CA — The woman at the center of the sometimes-heated debate of transgender people using bathrooms and locker rooms based on the gender they identify with, addressed the Santee City Council hoping to set the record straight after a 17-year-old girl publicly claimed to have seen a naked man in the women's locker room at the Santee YMCA.

The woman in question, Christynne Wood took to the podium at the sometimes heated meeting, telling her side of the story.

Wood shared some of the difficulties she has faced since Rebecca Phillips addressed city council earlier this month, saying she was terrified and forced to hide in a shower staff after encountering the "naked male," who she later found out was a transgender woman.

Phillips said she was "terrified" and ridiculed for airing her concerns to the YMCA staff.

According to her recollection of events, Phillips asked the YMCA about their policy regarding transgender people, she was told that the transgender woman was allowed to shower "wherever they pleased."

Phillips said that she was made to feel that she had done something wrong when she spoke with the YMCA representative working when the incident occurred.

"Somehow the indecent exposure of a male to a female minor was an inconvenience to them," she said.

Protestors Eye Santee YMCA

Phillips' comments spurred an outpouring of support from those who believe transgender women should not be using women's facilities.

After her sometimes emotional speech in front of council she was invited to, and appeared on, the conservative FOX News channel talk show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, where she told Carlson she felt it was "her duty" to "shed light" on the incident. She said that she saw the "man's backside."

Phillips' story has since spurred numerous protests at the YMCA, including one Jan. 18 where protestors voiced their opposition to the Y's transgender policy.

Protestors that night were met with many supporting Wood and the LGTBQ+ community, similar to what occurred at the Wednesday, Jan. 25 Santee City Council meeting.

Wood Speaks Out

In front of a packed house of both supporters and critics of the LGBTQ+ community, Wood told her side of the story, sharing that she was out of town in Palm Springs when Phillips addressed the council. The incident was brought to her attention, she said, by someone in her water aerobics class and after watching the video, she "collapsed in tears."

"Since then, the amount of organized hatred and lies to vilify and demonize me and other members of the transgender community has truly been disheartening and disgusting," Wood, who is retired after 29 years working for San Diego County, said. "I’m here to spread the light of truth in the face of these inaccuracies."

Wood, a 66-year-old woman, pled for those on the dais and in the gallery to look at her.

"Listen to the sound of my voice, I am a threat to no one," she said. "In the 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. Not until one was manufactured using this forum to do so."

Wood said that transgender is simply a medical condition, just like her need to wear corrective lenses when she drives, her high blood pressure and her type two diabetes.

"I am fully transitioned as can be confirmed by my doctor at Sharps, who is also my gynecologist," she said as she apologized for the "scandal."

"I am sorry that this forum was previously used to spread lies, and a hateful political agenda," she said as she reiterated that she was not a threat. "And in the words of Maya Angelou, 'A wild woman, A wild thank you, A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy and a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.'"

As Wood left the podium she was greeted with cheers, loud applause and shouts of "I love you" from those there to support her.

Supporters Share Thoughts

Speaker Danielle Wilkerson, who followed an opposition speaker identified only as Carrie, said she was at the meeting in support of Wood and trans people in the East County in general.

"I am against hateful rhetoric against anyone, man, woman, children, black, white and anything in between," she said. "What I just witnessed was incredibly disrespectful and incredibly hateful."

Carrie, when she spoke, called trans people "unwell" and demanded council "do something about it." When her time was up, she refused to leave the podium forcing Mayor John Minto to turn off the microphone.

"I am here to speak about love, about positivity and that I would feel incredibly comfortable with my children in the locker room with Chrissy," Wilkerson said, adding that she felt Carrie with her anger was more of a threat than any trans person could ever be.

Wilkerson said those opposed were actually afraid of men taking advantage of the policy and going into the women's locker room to hurt women, not transgender people.

Jose Cortez, a bisexual and lifelong resident of East County, said that the attack on Wood was not an isolated incident but part of a national campaign attacking members of the LGBTQ+ community to reverse protections they had fought hard for and won.

"We have to see this as an incident not of individuals but as part of a historic moment that you all as city council have a part to play in," he said.

Numerous others spoke in support of Wood and transgender rights.

The Opposition Takes A Stance

One speaker only identified by the name Britt, said that she appreciated the opportunity to speak at the meeting and that she understood everyone in the room had different opinions on what occurred that day at the YMCA.

"I am going to call it what it is and I ask the audience to remain quiet," she said. "This is a war on women. This is an assault on the definitive work over the last two centuries to be equal members of society while being protected in our sacred places under the clear and definitive umbrella of woman, a grown-up female.

"This radical new reworked language to force everyone to play by the rules of an ideology that is based on feelings rather than biology and truth is unsustainable and it's dangerous," she continued. "If everyone can be a woman then no one is a woman."

Britt said that if feelings "drive and supersede basic biology" then anything goes and "all societal constructs can be torn down and remade and that is the logical conclusion."

She asked council to "step in" and introduce an ordinance that would protect women and girls.

"Biological women use women's locker rooms, biological men, use men locker rooms," she said. "The same goes for bathrooms. Play the hero, we are the tipping point in society.

Speaker Tracie Thill from the group SanteeParents4Choice, told council they leased the property to the YMCA and had the option of not renewing the lease.

"You have the option of protecting countless women and countless children, protection from a man who feels like or identifies with a woman on any given day," she said as she asked council to put forth an agenda item to end the lease with the Cameron Family YMCA.

"Until policy has changed that biological men stay out of the women's locker rooms and bathrooms," she said. "I am a woman and I say no more to men appropriating gender."

Others opposed to the LGBTQ+ lifestyle called the incident a war on women, a spiritual, psychological war and gender appropriation saying there needed to be protection for Phillips and women.

"We are not going to bow down to your gender identity cult," Carrie said. "We are not."

The Legalities Of It All

San Diego's NBC 7 reported that what happened in the locker room was not illegal according to one San Diego-area attorney.

"From a legal perspective, the legislature had the intention that there should be equality in the offerings, whether it's restrooms or any type of services that companies offer, and so we have to go by the law," attorney Jessica Pride told NBC 7. "People are entitled to equal services.

"Whether you like it or not, if you don’t like the law there's this little thing called voting that we do," she said. "I was chairperson of voter registration for the East County Democratic Club and even though sometimes elections go ways that make me physically ill, I still have to accept the results, plain and simple."

Watch the meeting in its entirety here.

Related: 'Not True' Says Transgender Woman At The Center Of Locker Room Debate