Remember the dust-up at Wi Spa in Los Angeles, where a viral Instagram video showed a woman complaining about “a man with a penis” in the nude all-female section and staffers responding that the penis-haver was legally allowed to be there “if they identify as female”? And remember when Slate, Media Matters, The Guardian, and Insider (among others) rushed to proclaim that the story was at best “unverified” and evidence-free and at worst a “transphobic hoax” intended to undermine trans-inclusive policies—based solely on a very iffy article in Los Angeles Blade, an LGBTQ publication, citing anonymous law enforcement sources?
That was in July. Earlier this month, it turned out that charges of indecent exposure had been filed and an arrest warrant issued against Darren Agee Merager, 52, based on complaints from five women in the Wi Spa incident. It also turned out that Merager had another indecent exposure case pending from 2018, as well as two past convictions for indecent exposure. What’s more, an internal law enforcement flyer issued in 2018 described Merager, using male pronouns, as a sex offender who “claims to identify as female” to “access women’s locker rooms and showers.”
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