Oregon Woman Concerned After Man Who Identifies as Woman Admitted
at Women’s Shelter
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
PORTLAND, Ore. — In the midst of discussion about transgender restroom issues, an Oregon woman is speaking out to tell her story after a man who identifies as a woman was permitted to share sleeping and restroom space with women at an all-women’s shelter.Malka Davis, a formerly homeless woman, recently penned an op-ed for the Oregonian, in which she explained why she believes it was wrong for the shelter to allow the man to live at the facility among dozens of females.The incident occurred in 2014 as Davis was seeking to put her life back together. She recounted that a few weeks into her stay that some of the other women seemed to be in distress, and came to find out that it was because a man who “self-identified” as a woman was in their midst. One woman even left altogether.“The realization that a man was going to be sharing sleeping and bathroom space with us (in this particular area, there are no private or even semi-private rooms) was understandably met with tremendous anxiety, and, yes, even outrage,” Davis wrote.But she soon learned that the women’s shelter was required to admit the man to the facility because of Oregon’s anti-discrimination laws.“They (the women at the shelter) thought they had found a haven exclusively for women,” Davis said. “Little did they know that because of anti-discrimination laws any man who claims to identify as a woman can be admitted.”Davis said that she treated the man kindly as he often confided in her, but she would not deny the fact that he was not a woman.“[A]t no point did I come to regard Clarence as a woman, nor did I refer to him as one. I saw him as an intelligent, sensitive, but very fragile and confused man,” she stated. “That is to say, I afforded him the dignity he deserved as a human being without denying the truth of his gender.”She also reiterated that she felt it wrong that he was required to be admitted to a facility strictly for women.“It jeopardized the security of a dozen or so women for the benefit of one man’s sense of belonging,” Davis outlined. “Not only that, but for every man who is admitted into a women’s shelter under the speciousness of gender ideology, untold numbers of bona fide women are left waiting on the streets. That is not just unfair, it’s unjust.”She said that many who push transgender issues do not often realize those who are affected by such choices, including women at homeless shelters, who have no say in whether or not they don’t want a man living and sleeping with them in their room.
