Move comes amid furor over transgender individual’s use of YMCA locker room
By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff
Sandpoint City Council members convened in a special meeting Nov. 12 to address the municipality’s longstanding non-discrimination ordinance, which Mayor Jeremy Grimm proposed should be amended to “mirror” state and federal law regarding LGBTQ+ accommodations in the wake of a fast-moving public controversy over an alleged transgender individual using the Litehouse YMCA women’s locker room.
The issue arose in late October, after Jennifer Hook — who identified herself as a YMCA lifeguard — posted on Facebook that, “a man semi-dressed (he had a bra on and a towel around his waist) as a woman” exited the shower at the facility’s women’s locker room on Oct. 15. “I did not see his genitalia, but I could tell that this was a man,” she wrote.
According to Hook’s post, she spoke with the individual, who had a “distinctly male voice when he laughed and mumbled as his reply to me.” While she claimed not to have confronted the individual, she stated that “he had a male chest under the bra and no breasts.”
Hook claimed to have gone to the YMCA’s facility manager and aquatics director, reporting “that there was a man in the women’s locker room.” However, according to Hook, YMCA officials responded that no company policies had been violated by the individual’s use of the facilities, and, in subsequent reporting by the Bonner County Daily Bee, the YMCA stated that it follows Sandpoint’s non-discrimination ordinance in that it “allows an individual to use the locker room that aligns with their gender identity.”
Hook then claimed to have called Sandpoint police, who responded by phone that no laws had been broken, “and [that] if I wanted to make a difference that I needed to contact my legislature to make changes to the laws [sic],” according to her post.
That post triggered a torrent of responses, with local Republican Party groups and former-Dist. 1 Sen. Scott Herndon — who recently announced his intention to challenge current Dist. 1 Sen Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, in the 2026 GOP primary election — seizing the alleged “incident” to press for changes to both state and Sandpoint city policies.
“Sandpoint YMCA ALLOWS some men into the women’s locker room,” Herndon wrote on his Scott Herndon for Idaho Facebook page. “Here’s the thing — if you were born a male, you will NEVER be a female, and it is an affront to the dignity of real females to allow you to invade their privacy in their bathrooms and locker rooms. We need to criminalize this activity ASAP in Idaho. … The YMCA is part of the transgender mafia. For the sake of our mothers, wives and daughters, this must stop.”
Sandpoint enacted its non-discrimination ordinance in 2011, making it the first such city-level measure in the state (at the time, Reader co-founder and then-Publisher John Reuter served on the City Council and was instrumental in the passage of the ordinance).
Following that, multiple cities throughout the state adopted similar if not identical ordinances. Sandpoint’s ordinance, §5-2-10, states that, “all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity/expression enjoy the full benefits of citizenship and are afforded equal opportunities for employment, housing, commercial property, and the use of public accommodations.”
Furthermore, Sandpoint City Code defines gender expression and identity as, “A gender related identity, appearance, expression or behavior of an individual regardless of a person’s assigned sex at birth.”
Speaking at the Nov. 12 meeting, Grimm said, “The city has no legal power to enforce or regulate these issues, and we do have federal and state law to respond to any discrimination activities.”
In a memorandum included in the Nov. 12 council staff report, Grimm wrote: “It has become clear that the city’s current ordinance unintentionally places Sandpoint in the center of a legal and cultural debate that extends far beyond municipal authority or intent.”
According to his statements at the Nov. 12 meeting, Grimm intends to bring an amended ordinance to the City Council at its regular Wednesday, Nov. 19 meeting to “extract us from an issue that we have no control over.”
Public testimony was initially not included on the Nov. 12 agenda, but Grimm opened the floor due to the presence of several area residents in attendance wishing to speak. Almost all the commentators pressed for changing the NDO, with most citing the perceived need to protect “women and girls” from potential threats of sexual or otherwise physical violence.
Bonner County resident Heather Haggard said that protecting transgender individuals’ right to use facilities that align with their identity is “not OK. That is not fair to me, that is not fair to young girls.” Later adding that those policies are “teaching a generation of young girls not to believe what they know is true. … [T]hat this is a man and he should not be in my space.”
Other testimony questioned whether transgender people are mentally stable — calling gender identity that differs from biological sex a “fantasy that is not based on reality,” according to one speaker — while others claimed to be opposed to homophobia and transphobia, but were still “deeply concerned and fearful of this situation” and demanded “penis-free spaces for women.”
According to a statement read by Andrea Marcoccio on behalf of the Sandpoint Alliance for Equality:
“To reverse the existing NDO in Sandpoint is not a technicality of jurisdiction: It is to knowingly, willingly put your citizens in harm’s way. It is to be held hostage to the fear, prejudice and intolerance we’ve seen online these last days. It is to react hastily to an issue that requires careful, collaborative decision making.
“If it were the safety of citizens — and not the promise of votes and allegiances — at the heart of this rapid response to change the NDO, our community would be invited to thoughtful discourse on what language and protections in our ordinances best serve all of us,” she added, noting that more than 400 other cities employ similar language to Sandpoint’s NDO, and, “no increased risk to safety or criminal harm has occurred as a result of the ordinance.”
“To be clear, this attack on this single organization that has so willingly served our community is to risk losing the YMCA altogether,” Marcoccio said. “And while this alone would be economically and socially devastating in our town, it is only the first business that will be forced out of our community.”
In his memorandum, Grimm stated that federal law already covers LGBTQ+ protections under the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that, “An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964].”
However, President Donald Trump in a Jan. 20 executive order called that decision “legally untenable and has harmed women.” In his order, Trump stated that, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
Idaho law offers no protections based on gender identity or expression, and Idaho Republican Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch joined Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., as cosponsors on Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall’s bill titled the “Defining Male and Female Act of 2024.” It remains in the Committee on the Judiciary; but, if passed, would establish that, “there are two — and only two — sexes: male and female, which refer to the two body structures (phenotypes) that, in normal development, correspond to one or the other gamete — sperm for males and ova for females.”
Sen. Woodward organized a meeting Nov. 10 that brought together officials with the city, Lake Pend Oreille School District and YMCA to discuss the issue. In a statement to the Reader, he wrote that, “LPOSD and the YMCA have been proactive in arranging use of locker rooms so that only students have locker room access during organized events and there are separate girls and boys rooms in compliance with Idaho law.”
However, Idaho House Bill 500 — which barred transgender athletes from participating on sports teams of their chosen gender identity — is still in court on grounds of discrimination under Title IX.
“Judges blocked the law, meaning transgender rights remained unchanged,” Woodward wrote. “The case remains in litigation and has worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a nutshell, Idaho is in the same position as prior to the passage of H.B. 500, except we have consumed huge amounts of time and money. I did not vote in support of H.B. 500, even though I agree with the intent. We could have done better.”
Ultimately, Woodward wrote, “We have the ability to respond quickly and to the will of the majority. Local decision making stands in stark contrast to how we see our government operate, or not, at higher levels. Let’s keep the decisions close to home.”
The Sandpoint City Council will meet Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers at City Hall (1123 Lake St.). To view the meeting virtually, go to sandpointidaho.gov/calendar, select the appropriate meeting and follow the directions to access Zoom.
