Summary

This Violence Database is comprised of incidents of sexual violence we have deemed of the highest relevance to sex-based segregation of safe spaces for women (showers, changerooms, bathrooms). The vast majority of incidents listed are not by transwomen. Our view is not that transwomen are a danger to women but that predatory males have and will continue to perpetrate sexual violence against women where there are greater opportunities. Legislation like Bill C-16 will grant greater increased opportunity.

The Road to our Research

When we began our campaign against Bill C-16 we were somewhat frustrated by various lists of incidents used by those who, like us, oppose opening up women’s safe spaces to biologic males. We found that many of these lists freely mixed incidents that had varying degrees of relevancy to the discussion; incidents of men dressed as women to peep were mixed with reports of murder by transwomen and charges laid against men who hid in women’s washrooms and committed rape. While we do believe that these sorts of incidents have some relevance to the discussion, we don’t feel it represents our case well to mix and match in this way. We wrote an article that tried to delineate various categories of incidents and their relevancy to the current debate. We encourage you to read that article before proceeding to survey the data collected below.

After our own research, starting from other’s lists, we compiled a list of Twenty Incidents that we felt were highly relevant to the debate. All the incidents fell into one of three categories; either 1) violence by men in unisex spaces, 2) violence by men dressed as women in women’s or unisex spaces, or 3) violence by biologic males expressing some “woman” identity (dress, name etc.) in women’s or unisex spaces. (The distinction between these last two categories is negligible to some, but important to others.)

Two things came to light however, which made us realize we were merely seeing the tip of the iceberg. Firstly, some friendly connections brought to light a number of other incidents of which we were unaware. We began to see certain patterns in the data and to think more like the perpetrators; what were the easiest targets? Where were there already unisex facilities? Did these facilities experience heightened sexual violence against women?

The answers came fast and hard. We found comments on forums where voyeurs were discussing which stores had unisex change-rooms and the most attractive women. We started searching by store names and facilities that we know to be unisex. Below is the fruit of some of that search; as of the time of writing some 185 incidents in Canada, the USA, and the UK!

Sources

We have done our best to find the best sources which give the clearest information about the incidents. We have archived these at Archive.is for posterity. The “Secondary Source” category at the end of the spreadsheet gives other sources where one was not deemed to give enough info.

Presenting as a Woman

I have listed “female” under “Presentation” for anyone who dressed in women’s clothing or presented as a woman in any other way. It has been made abundantly clear by trans-advocates that they will except no metric for defining entry into women’s safe spaces other than declaration, or as the Justice Department says, “sense”. Thus there is no way for a woman to know whether a Mark Lazarus, 2012, https://archive.is/0VeXf , or a Gregory Schwartz, 2015 https://archive.is/oUsdc , ought to be in their safe space or not. I have not included incidents where there was some confusion over whether a person should be in that space or not if there were no charges in spite of knowledge of the incident, such as with Colleen Francis 2012 https://archive.is/yhSBM. There are a number of these kinds of incidents I have left off the list.

Unisex Pool Change-Rooms

Most change-rooms in UK leisure centres are unisex with multiple stalls. There are exceptions, but this norm has led to countless instances of voyeurism. If you become aware that any of our listed incidences did not take place in a unisex change-room, please let us know, and we will amend the list immediately.

Unisex Store Change-Rooms

We haven’t included change-room incidents where there is not good evidence that they are unisex. Some stores, like Old Navy and American Eagle we understand to be unisex. Target is often unisex but not uniformly so. Thus we have not included examples like South Windsor Target, 2016 https://archive.is/gElhw, Kevin Banks 2016 https://archive.is/C4mvG , Studivant 2016 https://archive.is/zz3Zp , as we are not reasonably sure they meet the criteria of relevancy for our list. If you are aware of any incidents like these where you are certain they were unisex change-rooms, please let us know so we can amend the list.

Staff and Restaurant Single-Stall Washrooms

Many acts of voyeurism against women have been committed in staff or other single-stall unisex bathrooms. To some people it may not seem immediately obvious why these ought to be included. But whether or not a unisex bathroom is single-stall, as in many staff bathrooms, or multi-stall, as the examples recently in the University of Toronto debacle, they both present similar opportunities for video voyeurism by a hidden recording device. While there are plenty of hidden video voyeurism cases in women’s washrooms as well, the perpetrators in these situations face a much higher likelihood of being caught. The evidence presented in our list is clear–increase of opportunity equals increase of violence, and even single-stall unisex bathrooms are an easier opportunity for voyeurs and predators.

University Dorms

Among the most difficult incidents to vet for our list are dorm-room voyeurism incidents. We have done our best, remotely, to research whether the dorms (and sometimes individual floors) had mixed-gender bathrooms or not. Where we haven’t been reasonably sure, we have left incidents off our list, at this point a very significant number.

Informational Limitations

Some “incidents” listed are really charges or convictions where the perpetrator has many victims, sometimes hundreds. Two major problems stem from this. Firstly, when there are so many incidents and victims, the specifics of how many of the incidents were in unisex areas is usually buried. I have sometimes made notes in the “# Victims” column to help, but the best thing to do is always to look at the original stories and decide for yourself. Secondly, in these cases the incidents are often spread over a considerable period of time. When this is the case I have recorded the date of charges or conviction in the “date” column, but then have also made a positive mark in the “law” column. Unfortunately, this does some damage to the “date” data (as the ones based on charges/convictions appear to be later than they actually were), but it seems to be the best mix of ease and accuracy.

Geographical Limitations

I have decided that instead of searching for incidents all over the globe, an unmanageable task, I would keep the data concentrated to Canada, the USA, and the UK. This rules out some other incidents that I have listed elsewhere, including in Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Wish List

Other that wishing these things had never happened of course, I wish that earlier in our research we had thought to include victim’s statements. We started to do this about half-way through the list, and so there are a few examples in the “victim statement” column. A future hope is that some courageous journalist will use this data as the basis for an investigative report. As I note in another article, voyeurism is clearly on the rise but it is largely hidden from the mainstream media’s attention.

How To Use the Database

Firstly, I encourage you to click on Show Entries and select 100 so you can see the first 100 incidents. The green button to the left side with the plus sign gives you more data from the spreadsheet, including number of victims (where known), minors who were victimized (if any and known), and the name of the location where the victimization took place. Every category can be sorted, enabling you to see the data in different ways; all the incidents from 2016, all the incidents in the UK, all the incidents by those who presented as women etc. Currently, the “PDF” feature does not produce a helpful output, but the “Excel” download works very well. You can also select which columns will display in the page below.

You are free to download and distribute this list, but please refer back to our campaign and website- WOMAN Means Something Campaign Against Bill C-16, www.womanmeanssomething.com. Thanks.

The source file is available here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d3RJd1WsjAtYuJmJNfxqbBdXIKmVBQ0orAvk88jzMd4/edit?usp=sharing

[Additional note: This database represents many hours of research by a few individuals. It is not unlikely that there are a few mistakes here and there. Please let us know of any mistakes at info[at]womanmeanssomething.com so we can make corrections. Please do not send any corrections of “this event wasn’t in a unisex space”, unless you have personal first-hand knowledge. In many cases we went through many news sources of a single incident before deciding it fit our criteria, and these aren’t always represented in the sources listed. We have done our best, as outlined above, to be conservative in what made this list.]