Society will let you “change” your sex, but not your status as a registered sex offender. At least, that’s what sex offender Darren Agee Merager, who is male, learned after masquerading as a woman and allegedly exposing himself to real women.
In June, a group of women alleged that a man who identified as female had exposed his penis in a women-only section of the Wi Spa in Los Angeles, California. Some outlets outright denied the claims, focusing instead on “anti-trans hate,” even claiming that police were investigating the incident as a “hoax.”
On Monday, charges of indecent exposure related to the Wi Spa incident were filed and a warrant issued for Merager’s arrest, in an ongoing investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. According to a source who spoke to the New York Post, four women and a minor girl reported Merager’s partial erection in the women’s section of the spa. That’s not all — Merager is also facing six felony counts of indecent exposure for a locker room incident in December 2018.
“Merager claims to identify as female so he can access women’s locker rooms and showers,” read a flyer made by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that identified the sex offender. Merager says he knows of the warrant and plans to turn himself in.
Despite the claims, Merager claims to be the real victim of sexual harassment, calling the accusations of indecent exposure a “pattern of abuse.”
“You allow [trans women] to go in there [women’s spaces] and then people simply claim indecent exposure and you’re arrested,” he said to the Post.
In July, the Washington Post published an article downplaying the incident as “a trans woman reportedly undress[ing] in a spa.” But even the Post had to wonder: “How can people be sure someone identifies as the gender they say?”
