NBC 7’s Omari Fleming was at the city council meeting and heard the peak of the drama.
Christynne Wood got a rousing applause from supporters during the Santee City Council meeting on Wednesday after the 66-year--old transgender mother shared the agony she says she's suffered from what she calls a manufactured incident by a teenage girl.
In December 2022, 17-year-old Rebecca Phillips claimed she saw Christynne exposed, using the women's locker room at the Santee YMCA.
“Since then, the amount of organized hatred and lies to vilify and demonize me and other members of the trans community has been disheartening and disgusting," said Wood.
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That venom continued to spew during Wednesday night’s Santee City council meeting with one concerned mother calling Christynne's use of the women’s locker room “a war on women.”
“This is radical, reworked language to force everyone to play by the rules of an ideology based on feelings rather than biology and the truth is, this is unsustainable and dangerous," said the parent.
“I know a lot of men would have gone in and it would have been ugly,” said former Miss. California Carrie Prejean, who got heckled by the crowd.
People have been clashing over the locker room issue since Phillips told the council about the alleged locker room incident during their Jan. 11 meeting.
"I ran into a bathroom stall to change as quickly as I could, organizing my thoughts to share with people at the front desk," Phillips said.
Phillips' story set off a firestorm of backlash against Christynne and the issue of gender-inclusive bathrooms.
Though under California law, the YMCA is required to allow people to use the bathroom or locker room for the gender they identify with.
“I’m here to spread the light of truth on these inaccuracies,” said Christynne during the city council meeting.
Christynne says she's fully transitioned. A YMCA employee who was in the locker room that day came to her defense, saying Christynne ’s not a threat, and she’d only heard Christynne ’s voice.
"The young girl opened the shower curtain and said, ‘Is that a man?' I said, 'No, that's a woman.' So I assumed she didn't see anything or who Chrissy was."
On a night that saw someone passing out in the council meeting and an anti-trans parent escorted out, the retired Health and Human Service employee had a message for her detractors.
“They’re fearful of anything," Wood said. "They’re the same people that had a fit when things were integrated in the 60s it’s the same bigotry."
Some parents are calling on Santee City Council members to pass an ordinance, forcing people to use the bathroom based on their gender at birth. That’s against state law, however,
They also don't want the City of Santee to renew the YMCA lease.
Mayor John Minto says they're in "information gathering mode" and no decisions have been made.
Correction: This story has been updated to properly spell Christynne's name. We regret the error.
