A female nude spa in Washington state cannot bar preoperative transgender women, a federal court ruled last week, rejecting the claim that forcing the business to serve customers with male genitalia violated its First Amendment rights.
In 2020, Haven Wilvich, who identifies as a "nonbinary trans woman," filed a complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission (WSHRC) after allegedly being turned away from Olympus Spa in Lynnwood, Washington, for having a penis. Olympus, which has another location in Tacoma, is a traditional Korean spa that offers full-body scrubs and massages, and requires nudity in its pool area, which is why it caters to a single-sex clientele. (The spa also accepts postoperative transgender women.)
The WSHRC, however, said the business's policy ran afoul of the Washington State Law Against Discrimination, otherwise known as WLAD, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of "race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, sex, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation, or the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability." Sexual orientation, under state law, is defined to mean "heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender expression or identity."
