© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
'I saw a naked male in the women's locker room': Teen girl breaks down in tears telling city council of being 'terrified' seeing unclothed man amid her shower at YMCA
Image source: Fox News video screenshot

'I saw a naked male in the women's locker room': Teen girl breaks down in tears telling city council of being 'terrified' seeing unclothed man amid her shower at YMCA

A California teenage girl on Wednesday said during a city council meeting she was "terrified" at the sight of a "naked man in the women's locker room" amid her shower at the YMCA in Santee, a San Diego suburb about 20 minutes northeast of the city.

What are the details?

Rebecca Phillips, 17, told the Santee City Council that a few weeks ago after finishing her shift at her job, she went for one of her regular workouts at the YMCA and swam laps.

"As I was showering after my workout I saw a naked male in the women's locker room," Phillips said. "I immediately went back into the shower, terrified, and hid behind their flimsy excuse for a curtain until he was gone."

She added, "I ran into a bathroom stall to change as quickly as I could, organizing my thoughts to share with the people at the front desk."

As Phillips talked about her younger sister, she began breaking down in tears.

"As I did so, I could only think of my 5-year-old sister who I bring to this gym during the summer to enjoy their water slides," she said, sobbing. "This is the YMCA where hundreds of children spend their summer afternoons in child-care camps. This is the YMCA where my little sister took gymnastics lessons. The locker room was supposed to be her safe haven to gossip with her friends and shower and change."

More from from Phillips' address:

"When I asked the YMCA management what the policy was regarding transgenders, they confirmed that the man that I saw was indeed allowed to shower wherever he pleased. As long as you were not a red flag on Megan's Law — the California sex offender registry — a grown male can shower alongside a teenage girl at your YMCA location here in Santee. I was made to feel as though I had done something wrong when I talked to people at the YMCA. Somehow the indecent exposure of a male to a female minor was an inconvenience to them.

"When my dad spoke to the sheriff's office, they told him that he should never allow me to shower there ever again. The YMCA wouldn't let my father speak to the manager of the Santee branch."

Phillips added that a YMCA official finally got back to her father, telling him Phillips "was not in any danger at the time of the incident, that [she] was safe."

She then posed a question to the city council members: "Could you knowingly send an underage girl into a room where there was a naked male and say she was not in danger? That she was safe? Or more importantly, that this was right?"

Phillips concluded by saying it's "obscene" that privacy polices are being tailored around transgenders while a "blatant threat" to safety exists. "The safety of children, girls, is on the chopping block," she added.

Here's Phillips' address to the city council:

What did the YMCA have to say?

YMCA of San Diego County gave KUSI-TV its official statement:

We are aware of a situation involving two members in the locker room of the Santee YMCA earlier this month. The comfort and safety of all our members is our highest priority.

As a community focused organization, we strive to meet the needs of all individuals. We recognize that birth and gender identity are sensitive subjects. We rely on subject matter experts, laws, and guidelines established by the State of California to ensure our policies are welcoming and respectful for all community members.

As part of this commitment to ensure all individuals feel comfortable, we are reviewing lock room floorplans across all facilities within our association. Our goal is to ensure that everyone has access to additional privacy if desired and needed.

The station said the San Diego County Supervisors officially passed an ordinance to redefine what it means to be a “woman" in May 2022, adding that Supervisors Nathan Fletcher, Terra Lawson-Remer, and Nora Vargas voted in favor of the ordinance, which has "resulted in underage girls like Rebecca Phillips fearing for their safety."

Phillips sat down with KUSI to further discuss the issue. Here's the clip:

Santee teenager explains incident of naked male using YMCA women's bathroomyoutu.be

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?