A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge said Monday that the Washington-based Olympus Spa’s female-only policy is akin to a “whites-only” policy.
Olympus Spa, a Christian Korean-run operation, is currently arguing in court that its mandate limiting patrons to “biological females” is protected by constitutional rights. The legal counsel of the spa appeared before a three-member panel of the Ninth Circuit on Monday due to the state’s Human Rights Commission accusing the business of discrimination in 2020.
The spa was accused of discrimination for denying services to a transgender woman who had not undergone sex-reassignment surgery, conservative radio host Jason Rantz reports.
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Judge M. Margaret McKeowna, a Bill Clinton appointee, slammed the female-only admissions policy.
“If you have a law that says ‘White applicants only,’ this is ‘biological women entrance only.’ It seems to me they’re quite parallel there,” McKeown said.
“And you can’t have ‘White people only’ come into my restaurant, and then you say, ‘Well, no, we have a religious, spiritual nature to our restaurant, and when you get there, we serve you special food.’ This seems quite different.”
According to Rantz’s report that cited court documents, the spa restricts transgender women except for those who have “gone through post-operative sex confirmation surgery.”
Furthermore, Olympus Spa’s rule maintains the policy is “essential for the safety, legal protection, and well-being of our customers.”
The Christian-run service provides a Korean body scrub service called seshin that requires nudity. The owners maintain religious convictions that only married men and women can be unclothed in the same vicinity as each other. Their policy bars biological males from entering the facility. However, according to its website, “biological women are welcome” as well as those with “post-operative sex or gender confirmation surgery.”
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Legal counsel for the spa operators argued in court that their nudity policy is consistent with state laws and codes.
“It is the spa’s position that the women sharing in this cultural and spiritual experience have associational and free exercise rights,” the spa’s attorney, Kevin Snider of Pacific Justice Institute, said during arguments Monday.
“It’s not really ‘biological women are welcome,’” McKeown also said on Monday, challenging Snider’s interpretation of the spa’s policy.
“It means nonbiological women are not welcome. I mean, that’s the reality.”
The remarks made in the hearing on Monday came after the state forced the spa to accept men if they identify as women.
The spa’s counter-lawsuit against the Human Rights Commission was struck down by a Washington-state judge last year. In an attempt to uphold their female-only policy, the spa argued that their Constitutional rights were violated.
Olympus Spa has locations in Tacoma and Lynnwood.
