WSVN — With the Bruce Jenner revelation now a hot topic, the focus is moving to South Florida after women in a locker room said a man was in there with them. The response: “My driver’s license says I am a female. But if your drivers license says you are a female, does that give you the right to go into the women’s locker room and showers? It’s time to bring in Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.
When Bruce Jenner revealed he felt like a woman in a man’s body, it put a spotlight on men who want and plan to become women. What it didn’t show was the effect that can have on other women.
Lisa Calandro: “I like the opportunity to use the jacuzzi, and the pool and the sauna, and all the other gyms don’t offer that.”
Lisa Calandro loves to work out at L.A. Fitness in Fort Lauderdale.
Lisa Calandro: “I went into the locker room to proceed to change into my bathing suit, and as I was walking past this person, I did a double take.”
Lisa then looked again.
Lisa Calandro: “And I didn’t want to stare at the person, but after I looking through the mirror at his reflection, I realized it was a man inside the ladies’ locker room.”
Lisa wasn’t the only one who noticed. One woman took a picture.
Lisa Calandro: “And you can clearly see in the picture, you can clearly see in person that it’s a man. There is no doubt it is a man.”
When Lisa walked by the person, she was dressed. Another woman was not.
Lisa Calandro: “And one of them was very upset because the man was in the sauna, and the girl was in the shower and had proceeded to walk out of the shower naked and was drying herself off and was in a towel, and the guy was right there.”
Lisa and other women walked over.
Lisa Calandro: “So she approached the man and said, ‘Why are you here?’ He said, ‘Look at my license. I’m a female,’ and the girl said, and I said, ‘You are not really a female. You look like a man.'”
Lisa went to the front desk to ask what was going on.
Lisa Calandro: “And said to the gentleman on the counter, ‘There is a guy in here.’ ‘Oh yeah, we have seen him before. He is not really a guy. Technically his license says he’s a female, so we legally need to allow him in the locker room.’
Lisa says the person may feel like a woman, but he looks like a man to them, and it made those women in the locker room uncomfortable.
Lisa Calandro: “It is very uncomfortable. I have rights, too, the same way he has rights, but I feel my rights are being dismissed for his rights.”
Well Howard, can a person who appears to be a man, but whose driver’s license says is a female, use the women’s locker room?
Howard Finkelstein: “By Florida law, if a man gets a note from his doctor saying he is undergoing treatment for gender transition, in other words, becoming a woman, even if it’s just starting, the State of Florida will issue a driver’s license calling the man a female. That gives him the right to shower in the women’s locker room.”
We contacted the Division of Motor Vehicles, which issues drivers licenses. They told us they don’t have the number of men in Florida who have changed their gender on their license to female. But according to one report, there are 700,000 transgender people in America.
Howard Finkelstein: “The law that allows a man transitioning to a woman to shower in a female locker room is vague, because the state is trying to find a balance between a transgender person’s rights and in this case, the rights of the women in the locker room. It’s a new issue for the law and will involve many changes as we move forward.
It’s a complicated issue, but Lisa says it’s actually simple: the way the state sees the person as opposed to the way the women in the locker room do.
Lisa Calandro: “The way we see him, we see him as a man. The way he may see himself is a whole different story.”
Patrick Fraser: “And even though women like Lisa may not feel like they have any rights, they do know the person in the locker room who appears to be a man sees himself as a woman, and according to his doctor, is in the process of becoming a woman. It’s an interesting and a complicated issue.
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With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
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