Olympus Spa v. Armstrong

The Child & Parental Rights Campaign filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in Olympus Spa v. Armstrong (No. 26-286) on behalf of Our Duty–USA, Women Are Real, and Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender, in support of granting the petition. Olympus Spa is a traditional Korean women’s spa in Lynnwood, Washington, where patrons, including girls 13 and older, are nude. The Washington State Human Rights Commission cited the spa for turning away a male who identifies as a woman and ordered it to change its female-only policy; the district court dismissed the owners’ federal suit and the Ninth Circuit affirmed. The brief argues that a single-sex nude women’s spa may lawfully exclude males, and that surgery does not change sex. It documents how public-accommodation laws that elevate gender identity over sex have cost women and girls privacy in locker rooms, shelters, prisons, and schools; explains that gender identity is not an immutable characteristic comparable to sex; and urges the Court, in light of West Virginia v. B.P.J. and United States v. Skrmetti, to resolve the conflict between sex and gender identity in intimate facilities in favor of sex. Prepared by Mary E. McAlister (Counsel of Record), Vernadette R. Broyles, and C. Erin Friday.