Banneker Pool. (Photo by Rachel Sadon)

Last summer, the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation pledged to conduct sensitivity training after summer staffers misgendered public pool visitors. But at a trans pool party over the weekend, advocates say that attendees, including the police sergeant who acts as a liaison to the LGBT community, were once again misgendered.

Sergeant Jessica Hawkins, a trans woman who heads up the MPD’s LGBT Liaison Unit, was one of about 40 people who went to Banneker Pool on July 1 for the Trans Pool Party.

The staff member checking IDs as people entered the Department of Parks and Recreation-run public pool “wasn’t as familiar working with trans members of the public,” says Rebecca Kling, a community advocate at the National Center for Transgender Equality, and the organizer of the Trans Pool Party.

Hawkins was one of a number of people directed by a staffer towards a locker room that did not fit their gender identity. Trans advocate Ruby Corado ,the founder of Casa Ruby and a prominent transgender advocate in the city, says that Hawkins was also called “sir” by the staffer. Due to her role at MPD, Hawkins could not comment on the record.

Bathrooms have become a flashpoint in the larger debate over trans acceptance in public places. About 70 percent of transgender students say they avoid bathrooms at school because it made them feel unsafe or uncomfortable, according to a recent report. At Banneker, visitors have to go through the gendered locker rooms to access the pool.

Kling says that as soon as she and Hawkins brought the matter to the attention of a manager, “he was very apologetic and able to support the front desk area.” She felt heartened by the way management dealt with the complaint. “I think this weekend both showed how there’s great progress and still important room to grow,” she says.

DPR declined to comment directly on the incident, and instead provided DCist with a statement: “We take all concerns seriously and we address them immediately. DPR has and will continue to train employees regarding sensitivity to LGBTQ guests. We continue to work with our employees as much as possible to ensure there is no confusion or stereotyping our transgender or other guests. We will continue to work with the community and we want every DPR facility to be a welcoming experience for all guests.”

A similar incident occurred last summer at the same pool, leading to an agency promise to train all its staffers about working with trans residents. Corado wants to know why DPR, which knew about the trans pool party event, didn’t take extra precautions to ensure that attendees would feel safe and welcome.

Transgender youth went to Banneker as a group last July. “We just wanted to have fun,” Lovely Hicks, a youth program coordinator at the LGBTQ non-profit, explained at the time. “Half of them had never been to the swimming pool as women, so it meant a lot to them.” But the day took a turn when Summer Youth Program staffers misgendered them and directed them to the men’s locker room, citing “the law.” For more than 10 years, though, D.C. law dictates that people use whichever bathroom fits their gender identity. The incident led to a larger conflict, in which the police were ultimately called.

“One of the first things that came to my mind about the incident was how we inform the customers where the restroom facilities are,” Keith Anderson, the executive director of DPR, told DCist last year, announcing an expansion of training for workers. “This would have been a moot issue had folks been properly trained.”

DPR declined to make Anderson available for an interview about this weekend’s incident.

Corado says that the recent encounter demonstrates “that whatever DPR had said to us was really just lip service. They told us ‘we have taken actions and this is not going to happen,’ so Saturday, I was expecting a whole new thing. Instead, after the big mess [that happened last summer], it happens again. Are you going to discount the head of the gay and lesbian unit getting misgendered and mistreated?”

Kling says the disconnect may have occurred in the translation from a training setting to its real-world application. “It’s a lot easier to say ‘We’re going to do everything right’ when you’re sitting in a classroom,” she says. “It’s tougher on a hot day when the line is long.”

While Kling hasn’t written off Banneker for future trans pool parties and other community events, “I would want to have more explicit conversations of “Can you reassure me that staffers who are going to be there are both going to be trained and reminded of that training?'”

Previously:
Casa Ruby Employees Say They Were Misgendered, Harassed By Staffers At Public Pool
After Misgendering At Public Pool, DPR Pledges Sensitivity Training For Staffers