Christynne Wood: Trans woman reacts to 17-yr-old girl's complaint of seeing her naked in locker room
SANTEE, CALIFORNIA: The transgender woman who is in the midst of ongoing controversy at a YMCA in San Diego has finally reacted to 17-year-old Rebecca Philips’ complaint of being traumatized to see her naked in the locker room. Christynne Lili Wrene Wood, 66, in an interview, told that she was ‘thunderstruck’ by the outcry her presence caused when a friend told her about the video, where the teen is seen crying and recalling her experience at the city council. “I went, ‘What video?’” Wood said. The friend sent her an Instagram link to a clip of the council meeting.
“I watched it and just started crying,” Wood said Thursday. “Twice this is happening to me? I just couldn’t believe it.” Earlier, Philips claimed that she was changing after swimming last month at the Santee YMCA and noticed a naked trans woman in the changing rooms. Philips also claimed that she had seen the trans woman’s penis. However, Wood denied the claim and said that Philips could not have seen male genitalia, because she’s had gender confirmation surgery. Her comments have since gone viral and even triggered protests at the YMCA, many believing the person she’s talking about was a man. “As I was showering after my workout I saw a naked male in the women’s locker room,’ she later told the Santee City Council. “I immediately went back into the shower, terrified, and hid behind their flimsy excuse for a curtain until he was gone.”
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The facility was closed early last Wednesday, January 11, amid massive protests involving hundreds of local people from both Wood and Rebecca sides, resulting in brief shuffles. YMCA will remain closed this weekend too, as its officials claim that they have been receiving threatening messages, reports the Union-Tribune. “This is the YMCA, where hundreds of children spend their summer afternoons in childcare 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,” Philips had said.
On Fox News, Philips later told Tucker Carlson, she only saw the person’s ‘backside,’ adding, “I’m in one of the most vulnerable positions that a girl can be in.” Meanwhile, Wood, 66, told that it wasn’t the only time she felt treated unfairly. In 2018, a gym in nearby El Cajon didn’t allow her access to its women’s locker room, as per New York Post. Eventually, the state sued the gym on her behalf. “The real thing that makes me joyously happy is that the word is out there now that you can’t pull this with the transgender community,” Wood told The San Diego Union-Tribune.