Recently uncovered public records include a draft September 2022 City of Port Townsend Newsletter article, where Mayor David Faber wrote about his emotions while hearing elder people at the August 1 city council meeting “repeatedly call trans persons ‘pedophiles’ and ‘rapists’.”
Mayor David Faber’s draft article for the city newsletter following the August 1, 2022 City Council meeting, disclosed through a public records request.
City staff prudently advised Faber to scuttle his article, concerned that “it might do more harm than help” as part of “a shame spiral.” Police Chief Thomas Olson admirably expressed that “Everyone should be encouraged to engage with city council without getting ridiculed, no matter what their opinion is on a specific topic.”
Though Faber’s accusation was never published in the newsletter, this incident does speak to the frame of mind and knowledge base of council and staff that elder women were being demonized at this critical time period preceding the coordinated physical assaults on elder women outside the August 15 council meeting while police looked on but were directed not to help. And this mindset continues today.
A review of the August 1 meeting video and transcript remarkably reveals that Faber’s accusation was provably untrue: NO public commenter at the meeting ever called “trans persons ‘pedophiles’ and ‘rapists’.” So how did this false and prejudicial narrative arise and continue to haunt the mindscape of our town?
Public Comments to Protect Vulnerable People
Julie Jaman started her August 1, 2022 public comment by summarizing her July 26 “experience while showering after my swim was hearing a man’s voice in the women’s dressing area and seeing a man in a women’s swimsuit watching little girls pull down their bathing suits in order to use the toilets in the dressing room. I reacted by telling him to leave, and the consequence is that I had been banned from the pool.”
She warned council that “women and children are being put at risk” and YMCA “staff seems to have received little professional training on how to handle reactions to such a radical cultural change, particularly for the most vulnerable, older female patrons and children who may be exposed to inappropriate behavior, the dignity and safety of unsuspecting women who have trusted to use these facilities for many years.”
Contrary to Faber’s claim, Jaman maligned no trans person in her comment to council, instead recounted her personal experience of YMCA management neglecting to protect vulnerable people (including herself). YMCA staff are supposed to enforce strict Child Protection Policies and Procedures, but no such policies appear among the Olympic Peninsula YMCA Pool Rules nor were in evidence during Jaman’s experience.
Searching the meeting transcript finds just this one use by any Jaman supporter of the words “pedophiles” and “rapists” quoted by Faber:
We have seen what can happen when pedophiles and rapists can and do populate careers and locations where they have easy access to women and children.
This was in the context of a nuanced, well-articulated call for protection from predators, which was NOT saying that trans people are predators as Faber claimed. Instead, it said the opposite: that predators can pretend to be trans just like they can lie in other ways, so vulnerable people (including trans) need protection:
Do men transitioning to be women understand that discrimination and violence are part of being a woman, and that we do need protection from predators? Do women transitioning to being men understand that they are also vulnerable to male harassment and violence?
All that this commenter urged were common-sense protections against predators and that “women’s concerns about our safety and privacy are and always have been legitimate.” The meeting video and transcript show that neither this commenter nor any other Jaman supporter called trans persons predators as Faber claimed to hear “repeatedly.”
Public Comments Hallucinating Words Never Said
In fact, the only people at the August 1, 2022 council meeting repeatedly talking about trans persons being “pedophiles” and “rapists” were Jaman opponents — falsely putting those words in the mouths of Jaman supporters while stirring up hatred against them:
- “When they label trans people as pedophiles and predators, that’s a problem. Thank you. I think you all should be ashamed of yourself.”
- “Comparing transgender people to pedophiles is absolutely disgusting. As somebody who has been a victim of sexual abuse myself, it is horrible to go that low to call a group of people who are just trying to live their lives these horrible things that aren’t even true. Pedophiles exist in the world and not every transgender person is a pedophile.”
- From a former mayor: “The people who are standing at the podium this evening expressing fear need to really think about the terminology and get ‘pedophiles’ out of their language.”
- “Do you know what trans people are? They are not pedophiles. They are teachers and they are leaders and they are the bravest people I know. And so I just encourage all of you who have such a short-sighted vision as to what trans people are and have the absolute hurtful audacity to call them these terrible names: Please stop.”
- “But I would just like to reiterate the fact that a lot of people have also been calling trans people pedophiles, which is also a statement of calling people things that they aren’t. … As has been stated many times today, trans people are not pedophiles.”
- Major Faber’s response to comments: “LGBTQ people, trans people in particular in this case are entitled to basic respect and they have not been receiving that in much of the commentary tonight on the pedophiles and rapists and predators.”
These speakers fell into a feeding frenzy of confabulations and repeated self-reinforcing misstatements, confusing primary evidence with one’s own side’s overheated false claims about words never said just minutes earlier. The end result was group hypnosis leading to the hallucination expressed in Mayor Faber’s draft city newsletter article about being “appalled and disgusted to hear people — all of them my elders, to shame — repeatedly call trans people ‘pedophiles’ and ‘rapists’ … with utter contempt.”
Nothing of that kind took place.
The Psychology of Totalitarianism
It’s hard to understand how this could have happened in less than an hour of real time, but some insight may perhaps be gleaned from clinical psychology professor Mattias Desmet’s 2022 book The Psychology of Totalitarianism, whose thesis is summarized in a physician’s review as follows:
Desmet’s central thesis is that when the correct conditions are present within society, a collective or crowd consciousness emerges which causes unspeakable atrocities to be permitted by, and in many cases directly conducted by large masses of the population (this process is termed “mass formation”).
This is a critical point because the majority of the individuals who commit the worst crimes of totalitarian regimes are not evil or psychopathic, but rather simply had a level of consciousness that allowed them to be swept into a mass formation. Similarly, this provides an explanation of why so many political zealots throughout the ages will feel it is justified to distort the facts in whatever way is necessary to promote their ideology. …
The final component necessary for mass formation is to have an “enemy“ to attach all of these negative feelings (that largely arise from disconnection) onto.
It is very disturbing and dangerous for Mayor Faber and others in Port Townsend’s power structure to mishear the words of vulnerable elder women asking for protection, dehumanize these women as appalling/disgusting/shameful/horrible/hurtful/etc., and project their own negative feelings onto these women as if they were an enemy. The end result was the city’s incitement and collaboration with the hooligans who physically assaulted vulnerable elder women outside city hall just two weeks later.
Such demonization continues to be leveled against vulnerable people in our community. By falsely accusing them of attacking trans people with “utter contempt,” labeling them “transphobes” and “bigots,” valid concerns are dismissed and hatred is fomented towards them.
And the hits just keep on coming. Continuing its run of censorship and tendentious misreporting about these events, The Leader‘s lead op-ed for October 4, 2023 was ironically titled “A Golf Course For All Must Transcend Division” by new columnist Jason Victor Serinus, which trotted out these false narratives to smear and demonize:
…championship of Julie Jaman, whose outrage at a trans employee of the Port Townsend YMCA made it all the way to Fox News, attracted Proud Boys to our community, and got her permanently banned from the pool.
Talk about blaming the victim for how mismanagement of a whistleblower situation blew up into a nationwide disgrace! First zealots beat up on Jaman and those who championed her verbally in the council chambers. Then they beat up on these women physically in the streets. Now they continue to beat up on them in the press and social media.
Stop the madness! If ever there can be accountability and reconciliation to transcend division, maybe it can begin by understanding the truth of this pivotal meeting where council listened but did not hear, decided to protect only selected vulnerable persons, and enabled events to spiral out of control.
Can YMCA Be Trusted to Protect the Vulnerable in a New Aquatic Center?
The proposed new Aquatic Center is planned to be managed by the same YMCA that mismanaged the Jaman incident and never resolved questions raised at the August 1, 2022 council meeting. This effectively excludes not only Jaman but also other potential pool users who no longer trust nor feel welcomed by YMCA management, raising another major red flag (alongside financial red ink) for the Aquatic Center.
Circling back to Jaman’s original concern about protection of vulnerable children, the Silicon Valley YMCA’s restroom policy requires that “Children must always be sent in threes (known as the rule of three) with a staff member.” Accounts differ about how many little girls were present during the July 26, 2022 incident, so it’s unclear whether Olympic YMCA violated the rule of three that day, or bothers to honor it on days when only one or two children are present.
But local staff seems to have been violating other YMCA rules such as “staff will stand in the open doorway of the restroom while children are using the restroom.” Much of the uncertainty about local YMCA child protection policies and procedures is because there is nothing on their website or Pool Rules about them.
Given Olympic Peninsula YMCA’s stonewalling, duplicity, and “attack the messenger” behavior in the Jaman case, there is lack of trust that vulnerable people would be protected under its management.
The Aquatic Center project should not ignore the elephant in the pool: its non-inclusive, untrustworthy YMCA management who responded to earnest child protection concerns by banning and bullying a vulnerable whistleblower with no due process.
Stephen Schumacher graduated with honors in Mathematics from Harvard College and programmed funds transfer systems between Wall Street banks and the Federal Reserve before moving to Port Townsend in 1983. He has served as an officer for various community organizations such as the Food Co-op, Jefferson Land Trust, and the Northwest Nutritional Foods Association. He co-created The Port Townsend Leader’s original online newspaper and programs ship stability software used by naval architects.
Wowza! Excellent article, explanation and coverage of this situation. It is so shameful that this is occurring in our town but it shows how PT is truly a microcosm of our dysfunctional, out of balance and corrupt country.
PRIDE is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. A community that supports female impersonators and places them in girl’s locker rooms, is a mentally unbalanced governance. Port Townsend is indeed a governance driven lunatic assembly and a threat to our free society. (lunatic is not hate speech… its just accurate)
It seems pretty simple to me. Male is understood to have a penis or an “outie” and female is understood to have a vagina or “innie”. A plug is considered male. A socket is female. Now, for practical purposes in society, if a person has a penis, they are male, regardless of their mental gender and if they have a vagina, they are considered female, regardless of their mental gender. What’s so difficult to understand about that?
A transgendered male is a male until he is surgically altered with his penis removed and a vagina created. In a women’s locker room, there is zero tolerance for penises. Period. The guy can identify as a turnip, canine, or mashed potatoes for all I care, but if he has a penis, he does not belong in the women’s locker room. If I identify as a bank president, does that give me access to the bank’s vault? Of course not. How one identifies is THEIR business. How their BODY appears, is everyone else’s, especially in a women’s locker room where women are most vulnerable.
It’s unfortunate that an individual may feel a different gender than their biology, and if they go through the surgical and hormonal heroics to be the opposite gender than they’re born with, I can respect that at that time, but not before. There must be alternate (private, single-stall, facilities for those “in between”, but NOT in the facilities of their choosing until their bodies match their minds.
Athletic competitions are usually unfair for biological males who alter their genders, because even after surgery and hormones, biological traits remain and can provide unfair advantages. It’s really not that difficult to understand all this, and I think most of us do, but the activists want us to ignore the obvious and play their game. I won’t, and neither should you.
Thank you for posting such a well thought out and well written essay explaining exactly how I feel about the whole YMCA fiasco. I was appalled by the way our “appointed” Mayor spoke on the proceedings. Shaming can be very harmful and false information can be very confusing to the youth of our community as well as many of the adults. I have suspected wrongdoing from the start of this and also from the attempt to shut down the golf course. What I can’t seem to figure out is who are the main supporters of these two proposals and why the big push to get moving forward with the pool and closure of the golf course when there are so many other more important issues to deal with. I smell a rat…..And do not trust the City Council members to do what the majority of the residents want. Just scratching my head in wonder about this new bullying people into a certain mindset that doesn’t, in my humble opinion, seem like the right thing to do…..
After reading some of the previous replies to the article it feels good to know that we have others in or community who are willing to speak out about and acknowledge social injustice. And I do agree about a man being a man until he does not have a penis. The whole feeling of not being able to comfortably address another human being by gender is not the way I was raised and is very hard to accept. Just too confusing for me.
This remarkable article reveals a very common mind control process. The pattern in the six comments from the Jaman opponents is obvious in a written version – they all contain the word “pedophiles” along with words to shame and humiliate. Meeting attendees hearing these statements might not sense any pattern, especially if they were dispersed among other comments.
They also may not notice the impact of auditory repetition. Desmet and others have mentioned the role of the human voice in hypnosis and mass formations. What is the probability that the six comments mentioned were uncoordinated?
Astute point! Some maybe were bamboozled into mass formation, others maybe were coordinated bad actors intentionally hijacking the proceedings with their psyop.
Marie, I would argue that the comments at the August 1 council meeting were organically bereft of imagination, rather than coordinated.
As with all religions and cults, slogans and mantras are central to the believers’ practices. The average defender of this orthodoxy has few arrows in their narrative quiver, thus their repetitious chants have withered to a handful of clichés.
As has been said by long-time observers of this phenomenon, it is a linguistic movement. ‘Language is real, reality isn’t.’ Men can be women. Those expressing concern for the welfare of children are pedophiles. Our New Normal upside-down world.
Absolutely 10/10 piece. Thank you. Going out to the troops far and wide.
The attacks mischaracterizing one vulnerable group in service to another which began over a year ago started with Mayor Faber and City Councilor Libby Wennstrom calling Jaman’s supporters transphobes, bigots and trans-haters.
As reported in my August 25, 2022 article City Officials Lead Hate Campaign Against Women, even before the hallucinatory council meeting described above and here, Wennstrom incited her Facebook followers to confront the “trans-haters”. The result was a group showing up at the pool before that meeting, shouting at and name-calling elders who had gathered to peacefully protest Jaman’s treatment. The unhinged attacks included those actual “haters” bizarrely yelling that Jaman and other elderly women were “Nazis”, “rapists” and “pedophiles”.
That assault directly preceded (the same day) the council meeting described above where commenters continued the name-calling and shaming, attributing words and sentiments to Jaman supporters that were never said.
The relevance of what our electeds initiated in 2022, to the current mindset driving antagonism toward a segment of our community, can’t be overstated. My Sept. 2023 article, publishing Faber’s salacious, juvenile and divisive social media tweets that include his post “The transphobes have found me,” instigated the recent Leader commentary by Jason Victor Serinus quoted in Stephen’s article above — ironically calling for transcending division while HE was divisive. Serinus called the publication of Faber’s own tweets a “smear campaign” while smearing the Free Press and victim-blaming Jaman.
In addition to the Oct. 4 Leader column, a recent series of NextDoor posts are instructive. In posts discussing that article (deleted by moderators at least four times), Serinus continued his attack on the Free Press, describing our publication of the mayor’s public posts—tweets that Faber put out intentionally for the world to see—as “character assassination.”
In the third NextDoor attempt at conversation about Faber’s tweets in my article, the poster asked why the previous posts had been pulled and explained “It is not ‘shaming’, when the information was initially posted on public media by the person, himself [the mayor]. He invited the attention.”
Nonetheless, another NextDoor commenter attacked:
“Transphobic pieces of sh*t.”
The same commenter called Jaman and her supporters “bigots”. Serinus contributed to the “transphobe” thread. Despite posters asking to “please comment in a respectful way,” every time different people attempted to initiate conversation about the mayor’s tweets, commenters went on the name-calling attack. I saw at least four posts from different NextDoor users attempting to have a civil discussion about this, and all were deleted by moderators.
ALL of this started with Libby Wennstrom and David Faber.
It also is important to remember that the Leader called the women’s rights rally an “Anti Trans Rally” in their headline following the orchestrated attacks on the women trying to exercise free speech with valid concerns regarding the BIG PICTURE that the Y situation made some but obviously not all aware of. One end of swimming pools and all of some minds are shallow.
Many years ago, as an official participant in public meetings I noticed the tactic was distort what the “opposition” says and attack the distortion. This was done by those in power who had game plans for every meeting. That was also the tactic during the formation of the FWPDA at public meetings. The Leader removed comments to related stories that were prophetic regarding the failure(s) of the FWPDA.
Now the Leader reveals itself once again. Nothing new. When you can’t have quiet meaningful deep conversations, you need to resort to distorting what others are saying and act appalled at the distortion you made up.
In tide pools and petri dishes large and small.
After Faber fanned the flames following the attacks that shut down the free speech at the women’s rights rally as police stood by, I removed much of my inventory from my business because escalation and MORE violence seemed probable. I am and was aware of where the root cause was coming from.
David Faber, Libby Wennstrom, Owen Rowe, Amy Howard and others are far from fit to represent all of their constituents on many issues. Yet all will be serving more terms unopposed. The full council is unable to correct itself. The momentum is decades in the making. Cherry Street, roads, no public input spending on frivolous ego driven projects and of course the 10 year long manipulated into existence parking problems that divide community are a matter of public record.
I meet at our door all that enter. I sometimes don’t know what is in some folk’s pants and don’t care. All are people. My chosen term is that you are a person. A PERSON. There are self-obsessed persons. Aware persons. Unaware persons. Giving persons. Taking persons. Sub dividing and pitting some against others with ever expanding labels that some are taught is the most important thing about them does no one any service.
You are a person. You don’t have to be a Karen. Or Ken or whatever.
I have been saying for years connect the dots here. There are always more and more dots appearing.
PT is merely the microcosm reflecting the macrocosm. Faber now has a new child who will inherit a world daddy helped to build. Or deconstruct. If you choose to follow your anatomy and be a woman, daddy helped make sure you are marginalized.
The thick skin needed in politics quite often creates sociopaths. In tide pools and petri dishes large and small.
“Zoopity boop.” “Fuuuuuun”.
Probably not “Fuuuuuun” in the long term and in the big picture as understood by less shallow minds.
I got my ballot today and I wrote in “Stephen Schumacher” as an alternative write-in instead of David Faber. Hope that was all right, Steve. I also submitted my name as an alternative to Amy Howard.
Thanks, Joan… you’ve inspired me to do the same. Why not the Best? :^)
Seriously, coordinated protest votes may be a good idea… at least to counter the Leader’s headline narrative that unopposed council may mean “people are satisfied with the city’s political direction.”
Thanks. I feel there must be some kind of protest vote against David Faber. He is so confident that he did not even bother to submit a statement to the Official Local Voters’ Pamphlet, while all the other candidates did. Not sure how to go about organizing it. Must be done immediately as the ballots are in mailboxes now. I would suggest leaving it blank if not writing in, which will lower the number needed for a write-in to win. You were the logical choice for me since you have attended most council meetings and posted before about problematic council decisions.
I educated myself today about the practicalities of write-in voting. The TL;DR version is that it makes sense to check the Write-in box on the ballot as a protest vote, but there’s usually no value writing in any particular name there, since it’s unlikely that would ever be tallied or reported.
1) The deadline for declared write-in candidates to avoid a filing fee is 19 days before the election, which was Thursday, October 19.
2) The fee is 1% of the position’s annual salary ($25 minimum) Since council is paid $700/mo, the fee in this case is $84.
3) Individual declared write-in candidates are only tallied and counted if (a) some declared write-in candidate exists in that race, and (b) the total number of write-in votes reaches that of the winning ballot candidate.
4) So for example if someone paid to declare as a write-in candidate and got 999 votes while the top ballot candidate got 1000 votes, then the election would just report 999 WRITE-IN without the write-in candidate named.
5) Likewise the same would be reported if nobody filed as a declared write-in candidate, only showing the total number of WRITE-IN votes.
6) For the voter, it works just as well to simply check the write-in box next to each unopposed candidate and not even bother writing anything in! That would still count towards the WRITE-IN results total to show lack of support for the candidate(s) on the ballot.
7) It’s unfortunate that the only opportunity to file as a ballot candidate is one work-week in May. This year it was May 15-19, 2023, next year it will be even earlier on May 6-10, 2024, months before August primaries.
Thanks Stephen for once again doing some research. Seems a day late and a dollar short to be having any impact on the council elections. I had offered a thousand dollars to help if Julie chose to run a while back but found out she does not live within city limits. I don’t really have any interest in making any “statements” this late in the game which so many in the PT status quo have natural immunity to.
“Zoopity boop.” “Fuuuuuun”.
I also note the lack of anyone supporting you so far following the last few comments by Joan and you. Even this late, people by roadsides with signs, and flyers posted and distributed to businesses to highlight what has gone on with Faber/Wennstrom/Rowe/Howard manager Mauro and other council would serve a purpose.
But you need folks who will step up beyond keyboards for the long game. The silence after your offers to be write in candidates is telling. Faber and crew laugh. Unstoppable except by the cumulative fruits of their own failures. There are many others like them above them in tide pools and petri dishes large and small. What goes around comes around.
So back once again to that Orwell quote as Mauro now expands and threatens those outside city limits with new taxes for his opulent swimming pool dream. Will council approve moving forward?
“It’s not so much staying alive, it’s staying human that’s important. What counts is that we don’t betray each other.”
Faber/Wennstrom/Rowe/Howard manager Mauro and other council seem to be part of a different “each other”. None of the group stands against what Faber has done from Cherry Street to considering doing things to chickens publicly that KFC would never consider. One hopes.
Thanks again Stephen and Joan. I don’t think the points made with a few write in votes will pop any balloons that need popping without some additional help.
Harvey, a lack of comments under these posts does not mean that others won’t be casting write-in votes. I certainly am. As are many I have spoken with.
The fact that it is far too late for any kind of campaign to make a difference makes this a moot point. We all have our ballots already. And even if someone garnered more votes than an unopposed incumbent, without being a registered filer, they would not get the position. A one-week window for filing, four months ahead of an election, is absurd. And conducting an election by all mail-in ballots received weeks ahead of election day is a terrible practice.
Well said, Harvey: “a day late and a dollar short”! Just to be clear, I don’t have any problem shelling out $84 for the sake of our town, it just seems futile and maybe counter-productive to declare as a serious candidate at this late date… especially given Washington State’s terrible practices of (1) starting vote counting 18 days before Election Day; (2) choosing from a ballot of candidates forced to file during a tiny window 6 months earlier; (3) winnowing down to only 2 candidates per race more than 3 months before Election Day; (4) opening primaries so a party’s candidate may be picked by opposing partisans; and (5) delaying results by counting mailed ballots received after Election Day. The end results have been discouragement of opposition, curtailment of campaigning, marginalization of small party voices, suppression of independent candidates after the August 1 primary, perpetuation of undemocratic one-party rule, and ballots dominated by uncontested races.
Think of the city issues that arose after the filing period in May, for instance the golf course and the proposed new pool, that got a lot of people wanting to do something. When a filing period is just one week and the paper comes out on Wednesday, which provides the first notice of who else is running, there is precious little time to take notice of who is running, whether there is a contest, and if not, finding someone to run or deciding to take on the task. If the only thing that can be done now for this race is check write-in, then surely we should be trying to change the filing period plus other candidate rules. If things got really bad, recall is available.
Not to be contrary Joan, Ana, thanks for stepping up, but…….. “If things got really bad, recall is available”.
Is “really bad” Sandoval, Faber and Howard wasting 2 million dollars on Cherry Street for less than nothing with no due diligence?
Is “really bad” ordering police to stand down as women are being assaulted trying to exercise free speech?
Is “really bad” no parking plan or enforcement that a city financed and ignored study showed cost millions of dollars, and adding a 50 unit hotel with almost no parking to the mix along with other stresses?
Is “really bad” Faber and Mauro purposefully limiting public notice of the proposed ordinance change to make streateries permanent, driven by insider special interests?
Is “really bad” letting road maintenance slide for years and years until more expensive replacement is the only option in many cases, and really no planning for funds to do much overall?
Is “really bad” Faber’s online persona that drags all of the city council into approval with silence?
Is “really bad” hiring Mauro who had no experience and had to have agreed to turn a blind eye to parking that by coincidence benefits Sandoval and real estate interests? That is called collusion. Really bad.
There are many more “really bad’s”
What is the definition of “really bad” that would trigger a recall? How would that work, and why not yet?
I just read under the Leader’s 5 allowed free views quotes from Faber, Rowe, and Sandoval. Crocodile tears for no competition for council seats and seeming denial of any responsibility. “Some people” are showing disapproval for apparently no reason at all. Today neighboring business workers and owner’s vehicles are again blocking access to all business. Worse during the most important times. 10 years of emails to council have no response or action. Owen Rowe and Sandoval complain of people complaining about them. Owen said at a council meeting he didn’t like the tone of some people. For no real reason apparently.
Hearing Sandoval gush about “our artists” during the time she was appointed mayor for the third time and unresponsive to parking issues she helped create that damage this artist and others show her and others disconnect. “Really bad” groupthink.
I can’t vote here or run for council. I can only watch in amazement and finalize plans to leave. But Mauro follows me into the county with tax proposals for his priorities.
“Really bad” and getting worse. Be kind.
No shade on those who will be writing in.