Many folks here probably remember an event that made a big splash in the news a couple of months ago. The event became a topic of conversation, debate, and violent conflict following the posting of a video (https://www.instagram.com/p/CQgfGijHyrv/) by an anonymous woman of color, calling herself "Cubana Angel," who had accompanied her children to the Wi Spa expecting a female-only section, only to be disturbed by a person walking around naked, displaying the type of wedding tackle typically owned by men.
This event made a big splash in the media, including here. Here are two diaries on the topic posted by a staff member of DKos:
and
Several news stories, these diaries, and many, many comments, portrayed the woman (Cubana Angel) who complained about what she perceived as a case of sexual predation as, variously, a transphobe, a liar, the perpetrator of a hoax, or worse.
Let's take a step back in time and remember that, not so long ago, it was considered mandatory among liberals to believe women who say they have been the target of sexual harassment. In this case, people, including staff members of DKos, refused to believe the woman.
"The kicker? According to the Los Angeles Blade, it’s possible—though not confirmed—there was no trans woman at all."
Instead of believing the woman who says she was the target of inappropriate sexual behavior, that woman was cursed and threatened, as was another woman who reported a similar event involving her child. She was accused, by many in the press, and many people on this site, of perpetrating a hoax, and of employing hate speech in doing so.
It turns out that she was not perpetrating a hoax. The individual who disturbed women in the Wi Spa on June 23 has now been identified. The person in question is named Darren Agee Merager, and is sought by police for five felony counts of indecent exposure. Merager, 52 years old, approximately 6'3 and 180 pounds, has nearly a dozen felony convictions for crimes ranging from sex offenses to burglary.
Why are these new charges felonies, when indecent exposure can be charged as a misdemeanor or as a felony? Because Merager was already awaiting trial for seven felony counts of indecent exposure in front of women and children in a dressing room at West Hollywood Park. A tier one California registered sex offender, Merager has prior convictions for indecent exposure from 2002 and 2003, and a conviction for failing to register as a sex offender in 2008.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-02/indecent-exposure-charges-filed-trans-woman-spa
And perhaps also because Merager was getting an erection from this exposure in front of women and children. That’s right: the indecent exposure was, according to the evidence of women present, giving Merager sexual gratification.
As of this writing, the police in LA have still be unable to apprehend Merager. But, for some reason, Merager spoke to the NY Post about the case.
“Everything about the Wi Spa was a bunch of garbage and lies,” Merager said in an interview. She says she is legally female in California and was in a jacuzzi in the women’s section when she was accosted by “Cubana Angel.”
If you reading this are still tempted to believe Merager instead of Cubana Angel, please ask yourself why. Why do we believe women unless it's this woman? Or, we should say, these women, because five women complained to the police about indecent exposure by Merager on the same day. What kind of logical pretzel do we have to invent to excuse this? This kind, perhaps:
Merager says her open cases involving accusations of indecent exposure show a “pattern of abuse” from a state and society that punishes transgender people. “You allow [trans women] to go in there [women’s spaces] and then people simply claim indecent exposure and you’re arrested,” she says.
This is a person with a long rap sheet of sexual and other offenses walking naked around women and children with a stiffie. This is the person we should believe?
Believe women. Please. And don't stop believing women when the predator they're talking about self-identifies as a trans woman.
The police put it a different way:
“Merager claims to identify as female so he can access women’s locker rooms and showers,” reads an internal flyer by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that was sent to law enforcement departments in southern California in late 2018.
I’m not going to opine on the question of whether Merager is a trans woman or not. I think that many people, trans women or not, are likely to disagree on that question, and I leave it up to others to debate. To me, the point is that Merager is, and long has been, a sexual predator, and not only pixels and ink, but blood was spilled on the streets of LA in the defense of Merager’s activities. Woman, man, I don’t care. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if trans women want to include Merager in their group, because those optics are pretty bad, but that’s not really my business.
In any case, perhaps this finally ends any question over whether Cubana Angel’s reporting of events at Wi Spa in LA on 23 June was a hoax, or a lie: it was not.
If you are wondering why this diary belongs on Daily Kos, my answer is that taking the side of sexual predators does not make more and better Democrats. There are a lot of people who do not want to be part of a party that enables this sort of crime, and it does not make anybody a better Democrat to facilitate it.
So please, let’s ring out a collective mea culpa, and be better in the future.