Seventeen-year-old Rebecca Phillips was getting out of the shower in the San Diego County YMCA women’s locker room when she saw a group of older women from the aquatics class getting dressed. She thought they were all women until she heard a single male voice coming from the group. Startled, she turned to a swimming instructor, asking if there was a male in the women’s locker room.

“She said, ‘Yes,’ and then stopped. ‘Well, no. Chrissy… you would love her. She’s transitioned,’” Phillips told The Washington Stand.

Phillips returned to hide in the shower until the group left. Then she went to the front desk to ask about their policy on people who identified as transgender. “I was literally shaking, out of fear and anger, and, well, shock,” she recalled.

Phillips found out that anyone, as long as they were not on the California Sex Registry List, could use the bathroom of their choice. If a biological man identified as transgender, he could use the women’s locker room.

“Literally all day, seven days a week, little girls in bathing suits and leotards are in that women’s locker room. It is a haven for a predator,” Phillips stressed. Her experience happened just over two years ago.

Three days ago, the YMCA deleted evidence on their website of their pro-transgender policies.

After The Daily Wire reported on American Parents Coalition speaking out against the YMCA’s pro-transgender policies, several pages they mentioned disappeared from the YMCA’s website. These included pages which voiced their official policy on bathrooms and locker rooms.

In a document titled “How to Create a Safe Space for LGBTQ+ Campers,” one of their polices read, “Ensure all campers and staff have access to the facilities aligned with their gender identity and comfort within facility and resource limitations.” How would this policy play out practically?

“For example, if a camper wanted to go by another name or pronouns and sleep in cabins of the opposite gender, they could, and parents wouldn’t be notified,” Phillips observed. “Fifteen-year-old boys cheating the system to get into a cabin with other 15-year-old girls? At best, this caters to teenage boy hormones. At worst, this undermines parental rights and children’s safety.”

The American Parents Coalition recognized these dangers and warned their members. A few days after representatives of the group interviewed with The Daily Wire, not only did the YMCA’s online transgender policies disappear, but many of their pro-transgender marketing posts vanished as well. These included a webpage titled “Affirming LGBTQ+ Communities with Pride,” which highlighted multiple transgender organizations.

Conservatives are doubtful that the YMCA is now recognizing there is a biological difference between male and female.

“The YMCA has been committed to radical gender ideology for a while at the corporate level,” said Joseph Backholm, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement, told The Washington Stand. “While most of the world is coming to their senses on the gender issue and realizing it’s not practical or helpful to pretend there’s no difference between men and women, there is still a segment of the U.S. that is committed to the idea that feelings determine reality. The leadership of the YMCA seems to be part of that group, so until the leadership changes, it seems unlikely that their policies will change.”

Many are also expressing concern over the YMCA’s decision to hide its bathroom and locker room policies.

“If YMCAs are trying to cover up what they’ve previously allowed and protected, shame on them. It’s up to conservative groups to illuminate the darkness and remind citizens of what is and was going on in their neighborhood gyms,” Phillips remarked. “[But] I don’t think it’s too unrealistic to hope for a world in the not-too-distant future where our government and groups titled the Young Men’s Christian Association affirm objective reality.”

The Pew Research Center released its most recent poll on transgender policy opinions in February. It reported that an increasing number of Americans have come to support a bathroom policy that requires a transgender-identifying person to use facilities that align with their biological sex, not gender identity. A reported 49% of Americans said they supported such a policy, while 26% said they opposed it, and 25% said they neither opposed nor supported it.

David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, weighed in, telling TWS, “Public backlash and clear moral voices can sometimes force a reconsideration [of transgender policies]. I do believe we are in a moment of a cultural shift prompted by the overreach of transgender activists. So, my hope is that the response to this incident will communicate to YMCA leadership that their constituents are done with woke politics and ideology.”

Closson reiterated, “We can push back by supporting women’s rights to privacy and safety in these spaces, using our voices to advocate for policies that align with God’s created order. This includes respectfully engaging with the YMCA’s leadership, signing petitions, or working with local officials. … Standing firm on biblical truth and loving our neighbors are not at odds — they’re two sides of the same faithful witness.”

Evelyn Elliott serves as an intern at Family Research Council.