Federal Court Says Christian-Owned, Women-Only Korean Spa Must Allow Trans-Identifying Males

A federal appeals court ruled against a Christian-owned traditional Korean spa in Washington, stating that the women-only business must allow the patronage of transgender-identifying males.

The owners of Olympus Spa, a women-only business with locations in Lynnwood and Tacoma, sued the state in 2023, claiming their First Amendment rights would be violated if they were forced to allow transgender-identifying males to enter, MyNorthwest reported Thursday. The spa only allows “biological women,” and excludes men and preoperative transgender-identifying males (those who have not undergone sex change surgeries). 

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The Washington State Human Rights Commission argued that the spa’s policy violated Washington’s Law Against Discrimination, which has been broadly interpreted to include “gender expression and identity.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed with the commission, stating that the state did not violate the spa’s rights to freedom of religion, speech, and association. 

“The spa’s religious expression was only incidentally burdened,” Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote in the majority opinion, claiming that limits on the spa owner’s free speech were necessary to eliminate discrimination.

“We are not unmindful of the concerns and beliefs raised by the Spa. Indeed, the Spa may have other avenues to challenge the enforcement action. But whatever recourse it may have, that relief cannot come from the First Amendment,” she added. 

The case originated from a 2020 incident in which the spa turned away a transgender-identifying man who asked if he could receive the spa’s services. The spa informed the man of its women-only policy.  

Judge Kenneth K. Lee wrote a dissent, arguing that the state’s discrimination law has been “perversely distorted…to strip women of protections.”

“Korean spas are not like spas at the Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton with their soothing ambient music and lavender aroma in private lounges. Steeped in centuries-old tradition, Korean spas require their patrons to be fully naked, as they sit in communal saunas and undergo deep-tissue scrubbing of their entire bodies in an open area filled with other unclothed patrons. Given this intimate environment, Korean spas separate patrons as well as employees by their sex,” he described. 

 “Now, under edict from the state, women—and even girls as young as 13 years old—must be nude alongside patrons with exposed male genitalia as they receive treatment. And female spa employees must provide full-body massages to naked preoperative transgender women with intact male sexual organs,” he added. “This is not what Washington state law requires. While the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) forbids discrimination based on (among other things) sex and sexual orientation, its text and structure make clear that it does not cover transgender status.”

Judge Lee continued:

Washington has perversely distorted a law that was enacted to safeguard women’s rights to strip women of protections. The women and girls of Washington state deserve better. Olympus Spa—an immigrant-founded business run by a Korean family—also deserves better. The Spa’s owners pleaded with the Washington Human Rights Commission that they wanted to provide privacy to women and girls, some of whom had complained years ago about seeing a naked person with male genitalia there. They also begged the government not to force them to violate their Christian belief in modesty between men and women.

“Those pleas fell on deaf ears. One would think that the Washington Human Rights Commission would be sympathetic to the Spa’s owners—members of a racial minority group who want to share their cultural heritage and provide a safe space for women and girls,” he continued. “Instead, it threatened prosecution for defying the state’s contorted reading of its antidiscrimination law.” 

The case is Olympus Spa v. Andrea Armstrong, No. 23-4031 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.