Transgender Woman Not Guilty for Using Women’s Locker Room

A transgender woman in Ohio has been found not guilty of indecent exposure charges stemming from her use of the women’s locker room at a local YMCA.

Rachel Glines, 31, was found not guilty of three misdemeanor counts of public indecency by Judge David McNamee at Xenia Municipal Court on Monday. Glines was charged after multiple complaints were filed with police regarding her use of the women’s locker room at the Xenia YMCA in 2021 and 2022. McNamee found Glines not guilty because none of the accusers saw her genitalia and prosecutors could not establish an intent to commit a crime.

“The facts and law have been on Ms. Glines’ side from the beginning,” Glines’ attorneys said in a statement following the verdict Monday. “It’s unfortunate not only for her, but for the entire community, that the filing of these charges ever occurred.”

The case arose after multiple women complained about Glines disrobing in the women’s locker room. According to the Xenia Gazette, one unidentified witness recalled at trial she “felt very uncomfortable” after seeing Glines naked. She also admitted that while she saw her “whole front side and back side” she was unable to see Glines’s “man parts” because they were concealed by her body.

Defense attorney Keara Dever argued that since none of the witnesses had actually seen Glines’s genitalia, no crime had been committed. Judge McNamee agreed with Dever in his ruling.

At the time of the incidents becoming public, the Xenia YMCA issued a statement defending both Glines’s right to use the locker room aligned to her gender identity, and also the organization’s adherence to state and federal law.

“The Greater Dayton YMCA adheres to Ohio and Federal laws and antidiscrimination laws which allow all members access to its facilities and programs, regardless of religion, national origin, race, color, sex, age, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation,” the Xenia YMCA said in a statement at the time, later adding, “Let it be known that, under no circumstances will we investigate an individual's birth gender identity and then, assign individuals to locker rooms. That would be counter to the law, counter to respect for all people, and it is not who or what we are as an organization.”

Following Monday’s verdict, Gline’s attorney said described her client as relieved and that the ordeal as an invented prosecution.

“It was our position that the prosecution tried to twist this law to fit this case into a certain mold, it just didn’t fit in,” attorney Lauren Dever told local Fox and ABC affiliate WKEF.