The two transgender women at the center of a nationwide controversy involving the Springfield YMCA say they would never act inappropriately in locker rooms.
And they don't want to be forced to use changing areas separate from other women – a practice that YMCA officials said would violate state law.
"I am a woman," Candice Clotfelter, 61, told Illinois Times. "I use the women's locker room. I don't want to see anybody's privates. I don't want to show anybody my privates."
Christina Newton, 42, added: "Trans females are females – bottom line. Why in the hell are they worried about us? Why waste your energy on us?"
Clotfelter and Newton, both Springfield natives and Y members who said they are good friends and treat each other like sisters, believe they were the people 16-year-old Abbigail Wheeler spotted in the locker room at the Kerasotes branch when she entered it to use the restroom April 27 during practice for the YMCA's SPY Typhoons Swim Team.
What happened next spawned interviews with Wheeler on Fox News and social media messages of support from former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines and American evangelist Franklin Graham.
Wheeler's words led to a gathering of about 300 people on July 13 for an outdoor press conference across the street from the nonprofit YMCA with Wheeler's family and members of the Illinois House's Freedom Caucus.
During the event, there were calls from Wheeler's father, Dan, a state worker and Republican supervisor of Maxwell Township, and the Freedom Caucus Republican lawmakers for changes in the Illinois Human Rights Act. They want to allow public facilities to exclude transgender people from certain gendered changing areas even when the areas match their gender identity. They say this option will protect children.
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy of Chicago, an openly gay lawmaker and member of the Democratic supermajority that controls the Illinois House and Senate, said the Freedom Caucus – she called it the "oppression caucus" – has little chance of succeeding but could ramp up violence against trans people, as well as suicide and other forms of self-harm.
A sign held by a woman in the crowd July 13 said the Y is condoning pedophilia, and comments from other critics of the Y reflected a fear that trans people, or people masquerading as trans people, are potential child predators. YMCA officials denied the allegations, which are not supported by scientific studies or trends in crime.
Officials also denied criticisms that the Y is turning away from the "C" word in the Young Men's Christian Association.
"We're very proud of our name," YMCA Chief Executive Officer Angie Sowle said. "The very definition of Christianity is to love one another, to treat people with respect and dignity, and we have always, and will always, continue to do this."
Springfield Ward 6 Ald. Jennifer Notariano, a Democrat on the officially nonpartisan City Council, took time at the July 18 council meeting to criticize the out-of-town lawmakers in the Freedom Caucus.
"This effort to sow discord was simply intended to generate headlines and more clicks," she said, calling the July 13 event "a backdrop for their manufactured outrage."
Even though the event was billed as a press conference, the conservative-leaning crowd shouted down several questions from reporters, and the questions went unanswered. The gathering did, however, produce the latest version of what Abbigail Wheeler said happened to her, which Clotfelter and Newton dispute.
Various versions of events
Stories about Wheeler's experience that were carried on Fox and conservative websites have changed several times since those outlets first reported Wheeler was kicked off the Springfield YMCA's swim team and was exposed to a naked man in the women's locker room in April at the YMCA's Kerasotes branch on the city's west side.
Interviews that Abbigail Wheeler, a rural Loami resident, gave to Fox News supported that narrative until her father, Dan Wheeler, was questioned at the press conference by a reporter who had a copy of email exchanges between the family and the Y that officials from the Y provided to the press.
Dan Wheeler then acknowledged that his family voluntarily withdrew their daughter from the team and canceled their membership.
"The fact of the matter is they made it impossible for her to continue with the team," Dan Wheeler said.
An email from the Wheeler family to the YMCA said the family's decisions came after the Y's "unwillingness to even ask these men to use the gender-neutral bathrooms, and refusing to alert the overwhelming majority of your members that this is happening.
"Insisting that this would be discriminating is disgusting," the Wheeler email said.
On whether the man she saw was nude, Abbigail Wheeler made comments both ways, eventually settling on the fact that genitals weren't exposed. But she said she was uncomfortable after seeing a "manly looking" woman in the locker room.
She said she found YMCA officials dismissive of her concerns and more upset that she and a fellow female teammate later posted messages on pieces of paper and posters around the locker room. The messages included, "Biological Women Only," "Women deserve to be safe here," and "Do you feel uncomfortable in the locker room? Tell someone."
The story that Clotfelter and Newton tell centers on one of the Thursday nights when they go swimming at the Kerasotes YMCA, mainly to walk in the facility's warm-water resistance pool.
Clotfelter said she and Newton, who always use the bathroom stalls to change, were wearing their one-piece swimsuits, sitting on a bench and having a conversation when Wheeler poked her head around the lockers and stared at the pair for several minutes.
Newton said she believes her low voice may have sparked Wheeler's curiosity.
Clotfelter said she interrupted the awkward silence by asking Wheeler, who was fully clothed, "'Can I help you?'"
Clotfelter said Wheeler replied, "'This is the girls' locker room.'"
Clotfelter said she then told Wheeler: "'We know that. We're two women getting ready to go swimming.'"
Clotfelter and Newton said Wheeler then left the locker room. That's the last time they saw Wheeler until the press conference, which Clotfelter, Newton and a handful of other advocates for trans rights attended.
In Wheeler's recounting of the incident at the press conference, she said she "witnessed a man standing next to two other adults who were sitting on the changing benches. ... To be clear, I did not see the man naked, and no male genitalia was exposed. However, I did see the man changing in the women's locker room."
Clotfelter said there was no man, and no other person, near her and Newton when the interaction with Wheeler took place.
Wheeler said she also noticed the same "very manly looking woman sitting on a chair in the corner, wearing a women's swimsuit," about four months earlier. "Even though it seemed suspicious, I didn't say anything and kept myself wrapped in my towel while changing," Wheeler said. "At this time, I had no reason to believe men were changing in the women's locker room at the YMCA."
Clotfelter and Newton said they didn't know whether either one of them may have been the person Wheeler said she spotted in the earlier incident.
When Illinois Times asked Wheeler to respond to Clotfelter and Newton's version of the interactions, Collin Moseley, a spokesperson for the Freedom Caucus and Wheeler family provided the following written reply: "The family believes that no additional comments are necessary. The testimony and comments made by Abbigail and her family at the press conference are their true recount of this situation. I understand the men who are using the girls' locker room seek to argue with her statements and change the story, but this does not change the truth in Abbigail's account of this situation."
Wheeler's descriptions were similar to, but not the same as, recent statements by the Rev. Eric Hansen, pastor of Destiny Church Springfield, that a child was inappropriately exposed to male genitalia in a women's locker room at the Y.
Hansen has declined repeated requests to elaborate.
Wheeler has declined interviews with Illinois Times and appears to have granted one-on-one interviews only to Fox News.
Protecting children or political theater?
Also declining an interview with IT was state Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, a member of the Freedom Caucus who told WMAY-AM before the press conference that transgender people "pretend to be a different sex than they were born."
Illinois Times intended to ask him his reaction to the many medical organizations that support the use of hormonal and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria and object to insurance exclusions for transgender-related care. The groups include the American Medical Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American College of Physicians and American Academy of Nursing.
Halbrook, in the WMAY interview, wondered aloud why YMCA officials can't "do something to protect young children and minors in these kinds of situations."
Blurring the lines of gender "just leads itself to a breakdown of morals and decency and common sense and the family, the nuclear family," he said. "This is all by design. This is just pure demonic, in my view, to do things like this."
Freedom Caucus member Dan Caulkins, a Republican state representative from Decatur, didn't go as far as Halbrook, saying there are people who truly feel transgender. But he said more language defining transgender are needed in Illinois law.
Freedom Caucus members haven't suggested how exclusions of transgender people from certain locker rooms at public venues would be enforced. Caulkins said the caucus will draft legislation this summer that will propose "a fair and equitable solution."
Caulkins said he hoped publicity about the Wheeler case will "ignite public opinion.
"This is not a political issue," he said. "This is a moral issue. This is an issue of right and wrong."
However, Chris Mooney, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said: "It's almost 100% political with the leaders of these groups. It's a way to gain leverage. It's 100% theater."
Mooney said the Freedom Caucus is exploiting a persistent strain of xenophobia, or an unreasonable fear of strangers or something that is foreign or strange, that runs through American society. Earlier victims of such fears included homosexuals and Black, Jewish, Italian and Irish people, he said.
"We've got to have somebody to hate," he said.
The latest backlash against trans people is "a reaction to the fact that they're asserting their rights, and they have allies. This is another cleavage point. These are the kinds of grotesque outrages that are really going to look bad down the road."
Caulkins disagreed with such comparisons.
"This is about biology," he said. "It's not about the color of your skin. It's grasping at straws, finding a way to legitimize what they're doing."
Brian Gaines, W. Russell Arrington Professor in State Politics for the University of Illinois system, who isn't related to Riley Gaines, said opinion polls show that public opinion on trans rights "is not entirely formed" and is "all over the place."
Clotfelter and Newton said it would be wrong for a transgender person to allow the person's genitals to be seen by a child in a locker room. They said they doubt such an intentional display of genitals has happened in Springfield.
"I can't say that it couldn't or wouldn't happen," Clotfelter said. "There are going to be stupid people in every facet of life, and you can't control the stupid. But you can't judge an entire people by the idiots. Transgenders, we are very modest. We don't try to 'out' ourselves."
Finding a place to belong
Clotfelter said she was born and raised in Springfield, graduating from Lanphier High School in 1979. An Air Force veteran, she was married and divorced from women four times and has two children and one grandchild.
"I've known since I was 5 years old that I was a girl," she said.
Clotfelter said she came out eight years ago and began her transition six years ago with female hormones. She later had her testicles removed, in a procedure known as orchiectomy, to enhance hormonal changes. She also had breast augmentation surgery. And in February, she had voice feminization surgery to raise the pitch of her voice.
She doesn't plan to get genital reconstruction, also known as bottom surgery, because of health risks associated with her age and heart problems. She is single, lives alone with her two cats, Tigger and Willow, in a subsidized apartment in Springfield.
"I'm happy because I'm me," Clotfelter said.
She said she supports herself with Supplemental Security Income payments stemming from health problems that include herniated discs in her neck from a workplace injury in 2005 when she was employed as a maintenance supervisor for a Las Vegas apartment complex.
Clotfelter, who operates an online and in-person support group, said she and Newton became friends through a support group at the Phoenix Center. Newton, also a Springfield native, said she graduated from Lanphier in 2000 and began her transition in 2020, about the time she was divorced from her wife.
"I chose being happy," Newton said.
She began hormonal therapy, had her testicles removed, and is looking forward to breast augmentation, voice feminization surgery and bottom surgery.
Newton is single, has two children, ages 9 and 10, and is employed 35 hours a week as a home-health aide. She said her clients have been "very supportive" of her journey, as have people at the American Red Cross chapter, where she volunteers regularly.
"The Red Cross welcomes everybody, even trans people," she said.
Clotfelter attended a June 25 event promoting unity with the LGBTQ+ community in the wake of Hansen's statements and anti-trans policies and statements by Springfield Catholic Bishop Thomas Paprocki.
She said she felt overwhelmed with gratitude for statements by leaders representing seven Queer-friendly "Open and Affirming" congregations.
The congregations "believe that we have a right to exist, and we're not a sin and we're not ungodly," she said. "It was a major gathering that I thought I would never see in my life."
The congregations participating were: First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Douglas Avenue United Methodist Church, First Church of the Brethren, Heartland Metropolitan Community Church, Holy Family Inclusive Catholic Church and Parkway Christian Church, all of Springfield.
Clotfelter, who attends Heartland MCC, said she wishes she could speak with Hansen.
"I would tell him, 'God loves me, why can't you?'" Clotfelter said. "Judge not lest you be judged – that's what God says. ... We need to stop throwing rocks. We need to be throwing kisses."
Clotfelter said she has felt mostly support from the public in the Springfield area despite the locker room controversy. Newton said she has had negative experiences from people who apparently believe Abbigail Wheeler's account.
Newton said she has received "weird looks" from people in stores and at the Southern Baptist church she attends with her 65-year-old mother. She said people in the church have stopped talking with her since Springfield media outlets have aired stories with her image about the YMCA controversy. Newton said she recently began attending Holy Family Inclusive and found more acceptance.
Martin Woulfe, pastor of Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist, said, "It's unfortunate that people are using this particular issue to attack a very vulnerable population."
But Woulfe, 62, said he recognizes how people born in the 1970s and earlier can find it difficult to understand challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community.
"This stuff was never talked about," he said. "We've seen a cultural shift. ... There are so many understandings of human sexuality. To many people, this is a strange new world."
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
