Year after year, joining a gym is at the top of New Year's resolution lists. When it's time to choose a gym, people might review the list of classes, try out the equipment, and tour the facilities — but there's one important thing that is often overlooked: reviewing the gym's policies to ensure that the gym is welcoming and inclusive of transgender and non-binary gym goers.

Gyms have a range of policies regarding restroom and locker room access. Some gyms permit members to use the facilities that align with their gender identity, while other gyms discriminate against transgender people by requiring members to use the facilities of their “biological sex”, a paradigm that is both discriminatory and unworkable.

Christynne Wood is a transgender woman who faced discrimination and harassment after she was denied access to the women's locker rooms and restrooms at the Crunch Fitness gym in El Cajon. When she requested access to the women's facilities, the gym imposed barriers such as requiring a doctor's note and proof of surgery – in violation of California law. Even after Christynne presented court documents changing her legal name and gender, the gym refused to grant her access to the women's facilities, citing unfounded safety concerns. The ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the ACLU Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties, and the law firm Nixon Peabody LLP joined a state lawsuit on Christynne's behalf.

Learn more about Christynne's fitness journey and the ongoing case against Crunch Fitness.

The discrimination Christynne experienced is not unusual; a study conducted by the Williams Institute at UCLA found that 70 percent of transgender people have experienced discrimination when trying to use public restrooms.

But it is possible to do better. The City of Santa Monica trained the staff at its swim and recreation facilities on the California laws that require respecting individuals' gender identities and best practices for managing any questions that may arise. Around the country, a number of school districts have adopted policies clarifying that all students have the right to access the locker room facilities that match their gender identity, and a number of courts have upheld such policies.

Policies like these send a clear message to the public that staff and educators will not only support and respect people of all gender identities, but also that they won't tolerate harassment and discrimination. The ACLU of Southern California encourages folks to do their research and choose a gym that aligns with these principles — and if you already belong to a gym, ask your gym about their locker room and restroom access policies.

An inclusive and respectful gym is one that:

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The new year is an opportunity for everyone to look toward the future and do better — including gyms. This year, let's challenge them to be more inclusive. Going to the gym should be a positive and healthy experience for everyone.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are using incredibly invasive surveillance technology as part of their continued efforts to target and tear apart communities across the country. They're doing so in near-total secrecy and without any public accountability.

The ACLU has been asking ICE and CBP for basic information about this program for years, and now we're asking a federal court to intervene.

In October 2019, Univision reported that an ICE deportation officer used a Stingray — a surveillance device that secretly mimics a cell-phone tower — to track down an immigrant suspected of “unlawful reentry” into the country. Little is publicly known about the use of Stingrays in ICE and CBP immigration enforcement operations, but we know they've used the technology repeatedly.

Stingrays, also known as cell-site simulators, track and locate cell phones — and the people using them. Pinging away as they are carted around in unmarked vehicles by law enforcement agencies, these devices ensnare not only a suspect's cell phone, but innocent bystanders' phones as well.

The use of powerful, surreptitious surveillance equipment is concerning in any context, and all the more so when done by ICE and CBP — agencies with a long history of abusive surveillance practices that include unlawfully tracking journalists and advocates and subjecting people to invasive searches of their electronic devices at the border. And when those agencies use these tracking technologies in secret, stonewalling our requests for information, we should all be concerned.

That's why today the ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union have filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to order CBP and ICE to produce a range of records about their use, purchase, and oversight of Stingrays.

Transparency is a crucial first step to accountability. For more than two years, ICE has been “processing” our FOIA request for more information on its use of Stingrays. For its part, CBP has claimed that they were “unable to locate or identify any responsive records” — but that's a completely implausible response. As we've cited multiple times, a December 2016 report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform discloses that, as of 2016, CBP and ICE had spent a combined $13 million to purchase and operate at least 92 cell-site simulators.

The public has a right to know if and how often ICE and CBP are using Stingrays, which were originally intended for use by the military and intelligence agencies, for civil immigration enforcement operations. We also have a right to know if the agencies have taken any steps to protect the privacy of bystanders swept up by Stingrays, whether they inform people in immigration court proceedings when a Stingray has been used against them, and what limits, if any, exist on the use of this technology.

It is only with a better understanding of how Stingrays are being utilized within the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations that we help ensure people are being protected from unjustified surveillance and targeting.