The Independence Law Center (ILC) has filed an amicus brief supporting an all-female Korean spa in Washington state.
The spa, which has operated for over twenty years, is facing state enforcement action for refusing to admit biological males into its fully nude communal areas.
Randall Wenger, chief counsel of the law center, says government should never force individuals to surrender their bodily privacy.
“Washington state is telling an all-female Korean spa that it must admit men who identify as women. The problem is that this is an all-nude spa based on Korean tradition, and government should never be in the business to force us to violate our bodily privacy,” Wenger says.
The owners of the spa center are also Christians who hold to the belief that males and females should not be exposed to each other unless married. Not only are the patrons only females, but the spa only hires female employees.
Wenger explains that the ILC's brief was filed on behalf of local students who experienced privacy violations after their own schools opened locker rooms based on gender identity.
The legal filing argues that the Anglo-American tradition has always recognized real, enduring biological differences between men and women — especially in spaces where people remove their clothes.
Wenger says lower court rulings have left the law purposefully confusing, and the high court needs to provide clarity.
“Ever since the adoption in a lot of settings and schools and other places of the transgender ideology, our law has become purposefully confused. The law is clear, but its interpretation has been purposefully confused,” Wenger states.
The case, known as Olympus Spa v. Armstrong, is currently on appeal via a petition for a writ of certiorari, meaning the Supreme Court justices must decide whether to take up the case and resolve the issue nationwide.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) are representing the spa.
