Banneker Pool. (Photo by Andrew Wiseman)

After an incident in which D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation Summer Youth Program staffers misgendered transgender women at a public pool in July, the agency says it is expanding its staff training to include education about bathroom laws and updating its complaint system.

“It’s a very unfortunate incident,” Keith Anderson, the executive director at DPR, told DCist. “I deeply regret what took place and if the staff were better equipped, this would be a different conversation, if one at all. This is an opportunity to make sure that everyone feels welcome and no one thinks twice about going into a DPR facility.”

When a group of transgender youth went to one of D.C.’s public pools on July 8, it was the first time many of them were at a swimming pool as women.

“We went there to have a good day,” says Nona Conner, a youth program coordinator at Casa Ruby, the LGBTQ non-profit that organized the trip. “We went through a lot to make sure we did everything of our part about not being too revealing or too loud.”

When they arrived at Banneker Pool, a short distance from Casa Ruby’s headquarters on Georgia Avenue, things took a turn. The group asked where the women’s bathroom was, and a worker employed at the pool through the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program, which provides summer jobs and training to D.C. residents between the ages of 14 and 24, directed them all to the men’s bathroom, citing “the law.”

For more than a decade, however, the law in D.C. allows people to use whichever bathroom fits their gender identity.

After a short exchange, the group went to the pool to swim. When it began to rain an hour later, staffers and guests sought shelter in the Banneker Recreation Center. That’s where staffers “were laughing, joking, making indirect comments, calling us pedophiles and perverts,” according to Conner, who is also a fellow at Collective Action for Safe Spaces.

Jocque O’Neal, a volunteer at Casa Ruby, says that “staffers at Banneker were antagonizing the Casa Ruby youth.” Another back-and-forth ensued. The group from Casa Ruby left and the DPR staffers called D.C. Police to report threats. MPD and DPR are still investigating the incident, though the misgendering itself has never been in question.

Some of the folks from Casa Ruby have filed complaints with the D.C. Office of Human Rights. Of the public accommodations complaints the agency received in 2015, the majority regarded gender identity and expression, according to an OHR report. An estimated 14,550 people in the District of Columbia identify as transgender, or 2.77 percent of the population.

Conner and Lovely Hicks, another youth program coordinator at Casa Ruby who was there during the Banneker incident, say that the event has had a huge impact on those in attendance.

“A bunch of clients have not returned because they just don’t feel like we can protect them or anyone else can protect them,” says Hicks.

“Now we have to deal with a group of young women who are emotionally damaged, and that is not cool at all,” Conner says. “A lot of kids are going to stop coming to the pools because they were just that embarrassed.”

DPR wants to avoid that in the future by implementing training changes. “One of the first things that came to my mind about the incident was how we inform the customers where the restroom facilities are,” Anderson, of DPR, says. “This would have been a moot issue had folks been properly trained.”

So the agency is partnering with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs to provide annual cultural competency training to its staffers, including seasonal and Summer Youth Program employees. “We want our folks not only to understand the law but understand how to communicate it to our customers,” Anderson says. While staffers already receive some cultural competency training, up until now it has not included bathroom laws.

It begins this Thursday with staffers at Banneker Pool, where the incident occurred and an unaffiliated Trans Pride Pool Party is slated for this Sunday. Anderson notes it is also DPR’s most popular outdoor aquatic facility. Collective Action for Safe Spaces and trans-led consulting firm Parallax Group will conduct tomorrow’s training, according to CASS Executive Director Jessica Raven.

“The goal is to roll the training out over the next few weeks, though we’re on the down side of summer,” Anderson says. “DPR has over 100 facilities in our inventory. I would like to complete this training as soon as possible. When you have 600 employees, there are some logistics that go into this.”

He also wants DPR facilities to list an emergency number, so customers can contact people at headquarters if they have issues, as well as implement a new in-person complaint system. He says he is meeting with Ruby Corado, the founder and executive director of Casa Ruby, later this week as well.

“I deeply apologize for that experience,” says Anderson. “It is my goal to make sure I provide a facility that is welcoming. I’m deeply saddened by the event, and I apologize to not just them but to the SYP children who didn’t know any better. I could punish these kids or I could teach them how to do better moving forward. We’re talking about children that are 15 or 17 years old. We’re going to make sure we prepare them for the future as well.”

Hicks is still skeptical. “That’s nice and that’s beautiful, but I really want to know what’s being done for the people who were actually wronged,” says Hicks. “Training staff is one thing, but it doesn’t compensate for the way we were made to feel.”

Following their complaints to OHR, the first in-person hearing with the agency is scheduled for later this month. Both confidential settlement agreements and adjudicated cases can include monetary payments, at the D.C. Commission on Human Rights, according to Stephanie Franklin, interim director of policy and communications at OHR.

Conner is hoping that DPR will be liable for damages. “Some type of monetary funding should be implemented for people’s distress,” she says. “I know no change is going to happen without it.”

Hicks has another idea. “I would like to see an initiative to hire transgender staff,” she says. “There’s a number of young trans girls who would love the opportunity to work for Parks and Recreation. Of course, they’d have to apply and all those things, but it’d show them that they are being heard, and give them the opportunity to help change how people feel about this community.”

Updated to reflect that the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program provides jobs for D.C. residents ages 14-24, not 18-24.