Court Orders Korean Spa to Welcome Transgender Women
(MENAFN) A federal appeals court has mandated that a Korean spa located in Lynnwood, Washington must offer its services to transgender women.
The spa had previously tried to exclude transwomen who had not undergone "gender-affirming surgery" from its female-only areas.
On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided in a 2–1 ruling that Olympus Spa must revise its admission policies to adhere to anti-discrimination regulations.
The court determined that the spa owners’ First Amendment rights—including "the right to free exercise of religion," "freedom of speech," and "right of association"—were not being infringed upon by the State of Washington’s mandate.
Olympus Spa operates two venues within the state, functioning as a traditional Korean bathhouse that provides massages, body scrubs, and hot tubs requiring complete nudity.
In 2020, the Washington State Human Rights Commission initiated a complaint after a transgender woman, who had not undergone genital surgery, was refused entry.
The Commission contended that the spa’s women-only policy breached the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD), which bans discrimination in public accommodations on the grounds of gender identity and gender expression.
In defense, Olympus Spa filed a lawsuit alleging that the state was violating the proprietors’ constitutional freedoms relating to religion, speech, and association.
Managed by a Christian Korean-American family, the spa referenced religious and cultural convictions in opposing the admission of persons with male genitalia into female-exclusive spaces where nudity is mandatory.
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