Illinois YMCA Allows Biological Male In Girls' Locker Room, 16-Year-Old Says He Was 'Watching' Her

There's a story out of Springfield, Ill., that is quickly gaining national attention. Abbigail Wheeler, a 16-year-old female swimmer, says her local YMCA told her there was nothing it could do about a biological male in the girls' locker room.

According to her father, Dan, Abbigail entered the girls' locker room at the Springfield YMCA on April 27, 2023. That's when she encountered a biological male.

"The first time I saw them in there, he was in a woman's swimsuit sitting in the corner of the locker room, just sitting there. Watching," Abbigail Wheeler told OutKick.

Abbigail Wheeler, a 16-year-old female, encountered a biological male in the girls' locker room at the YMCA and administration did nothing about it. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Dan Wheeler noted that there are multiple trans-identifying people at this particular YMCA. But, Abbigail only encountered one of them and came into contact with him on two separate occasions.

"The second time, I had gone in to use the restroom during practice," Abbigail said. "And he was standing there with two other adults and they were changing. He was clothed already and was just talking to them."

Abbigail said that she did not see male genitalia on either occurrence. But this was an unmistakable biological male in the girls' locker room.

Uncomfortable that a biological male had access to the girls' locker room, Abbigail informed her swim coach, Alex Totura, of the situation.

Totura told Abbigail that "there is nothing could do about it."

In response, she and a fellow member of the swim team made and hung signs up in the locker room.

Abbigail made three signs. The first two (pictured below) read "Biological females only" and "Women's Rights." The third (not pictured) said "SafeSport." Her teammate created some, as well.

Abbigail Wheeler and a teammate on her YMCA swim team made signs to hang up in the girls' locker room.

The reason Abbigail Wheeler hung a sign in the girls' locker room that said 'SafeSport'

SafeSport refers to the "U.S. Center for SafeSport" which is "an independent nonprofit committed to building a sport community where participants can work and learn together free of emotional, physical and sexual abuse and misconduct."

As a youth umpire, I am familiar with SafeSport. All adults involved in youth sports -- be it coaches, officials or others -- must be certified in their program to work with children. It requires taking a certain amount of training.

The point of that, obviously, is to prevent certain things from happening. For example, adult men accessing the locker rooms of young, female athletes.

However, the YMCA administration took the signs down and demanded to know who put them up. Abbigail and her teammate informed them that they had done it.

At this point, Totura told Abbigail that the signs contained "hate speech" and were "disrespectful."

Additionally, Abbigail's mother, Julie Wheeler, received a phone call from Kenzi Primus the branch director for that YMCA.

Primus reiterated to Julie what Totura told Abigail: the signs contained "hateful speech."

Personally, I spent a lot of time in locker rooms as a young athlete myself. I've had teammates say some pretty mean stuff to me. I didn't consider any of it to be "hate speech."

And I can promise that it was quite a bit more "hateful" and "disrespectful" than the signs that Abbigail and her teammate posted.

YMCA restricts Abbigail Wheeler's access to their facility until she meets their terms

YMCA administrators told the family that they would not allow Abbigail back inside the facility until she met with them.

"My wife received a voicemail on her phone from Kenzi Primus that said, 'Hey, there was an incident that happened with your daughter, we need to have a meeting,'" Dan Wheeler told OutKick. "Primus said that they would not allow Abbigail to practice with the team or enter the facility until she had this meeting with the folks at the YMCA."

Abbigail Wheeler, a 16-year-old female, encountered a biological male in the girls' locker room at the YMCA and administrators did nothing about it.

Dan Wheeler says he agreed to the meeting on one condition. He wanted to have the Executive Director of USA Swimming SafeSport and one of her managers in attendance.

At first, YMCA administrators agreed that this was not a problem.

But, Dan Wheeler says, he later received an email shutting down that idea.

"I got an email from Jill Steiner -- the H.R. person with the YMCA -- and it said, 'You want to bring SafeSport representatives? I, Jill Steiner, am the representative for the YMCA, for USA Swimming SafeSport. You don't need them. They're not allowed in the meeting.'"

He decided, at that point, that the YMCA seemed most interested in trying to protect itself instead of the young swimmer, who had tried protect herself.

"I wasn't going to go to a meeting where they were going to dictate punishment to my daughter because she had already received, in my opinion, punishment for free speech," Dan Wheeler said.

YMCA responds to OutKick with a prepared statement

OutKick reached out to the Springfield YMCA and received a statement that said, in part: "The statement that the swimmer was removed from the Y and prevented from participating on the swim team is false. She left the swim team and the YMCA on her own."

The Wheelers say that the YMCA put them in a position where they would have to accept the organization's terms -- which they felt were extremely unfair -- in order for Abbigail to continue on the swim team.

Abbigail Wheeler, a 16-year-old female, encountered a biological male in the girls' locker room at the YMCA and administrators did nothing about it. (Photo by Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

So, while technically correct that the YMCA did not remove her from the team, it made it extremely difficult for Abbigail to continue. The Y made no plans to change the policy around allowing biological males in the girls' locker room.

Nor did they allow the Wheelers to have representatives in a meeting to determine their daughter's fate with the team.

"Because they set those criteria and boundaries to not allow us to be represented, she wasn't able to participate with team or go into the facility. We had to quit. We had to walk away," Dan Wheeler stated.

In a previous statement, the YMCA also wrote that "transgender members are protected under Illinois state law that says they may use the restroom/locker of the gender in which they identify. The law also states that it is discriminatory to require anyone to use specific private changing rooms."

Illinois law isn't entirely clear on the transgender locker room issue

Dan Wheeler says that the statute in the law is open to interpretation. And, he reached out to another local YMCA and asked about its policy.

"I've consulted with good friends of mine who said that they have separate policies for locker rooms, as opposed to family changing rooms, specifically Clinton " Wheeler said. "They have gender-specific locker rooms, and gender-neutral family areas and restrooms."

Wheeler says the Springfield YMCA has a family changing area and several parents asked administrators if they could direct transgender individuals to use that instead of the girls' locker room.

"The YMCA staff said they could not do that because it is discrimination and against the law," Wheeler said.

Protesters rally against a biological male in the female locker room at a YMCA. (Photo by SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the bill -- passed in 2021 -- on the Illinois' government website, Wheeler is correct that it's open to interpretation. After all, it specifically says that people can use the "bathroom" and/or "restroom" of the gender that they identify as.

It does not, however, say "locker room." Locker rooms, which are primarily used for changing, generally serve a different purpose from strictly bathrooms.

Illinois does have a law that public schools cannot stop students from using the locker room of their choosing. However, that only applies to students and not adults. And, the YMCA is not a public school.

"The locker room is sort of sacred because that's where young girls, young boys are changing," Dan Wheeler said.

Correct.

Additionally, as I've written in the past, what happened to consent?

Abbigail Wheeler certainly did not consent to a biological male being present in her changing area.

But, in order to protect an adult male's feelings, the privacy of several teenage girls was sacrificed.

The Wheelers join a growing list of people speaking out about these injustices

Thankfully, more and more people are speaking out. Abbigail Wheeler's sister, Kaitlynn Wheeler, competed against Lia Thomas in college. She also shared a locker room with a biological male.

And the entire Wheeler family is now standing up against this lunacy.

Protesters rally against a biological male in the female locker room at a YMCA. (Photo by SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

Perhaps ESPN should consider giving Abbigail Wheeler, a 16-year-old girl who is speaking out in public about an injustice she faced, a courage ESPY. Instead, they gave that ESPY to the women who want MORE men in women's sports.

"I really just want to bring awareness to the parents and the families of what's really just going on at the Y and let them know that this is happening," Abbigail Wheeler said. "The Y failed to tell the parents, failed to tell the families that their children were allowed to be in a locker room with men, while being in a vulnerable state and exposing themselves."

Abbigail found a new swim team with which to continue her career. She said her new swim coach is not going to tolerate any similar experiences.

"He told me that he's very strict on that stuff and would not allow that to happen. He said, 'I want to keep my athletes safe.'"

Focusing on the safety of young females over the feelings of adult men?

What a novel concept.