Official: Ocean City locker room email 'unacceptable'
The longtime head of Ocean City's Beach Patrol may be disciplined for a terse email instructing employees to use the locker room that "corresponds to your DNA."
Capt. Butch Arbin wrote in an email to dozens of patrol members Sunday, "Males use the Men’s locker room ONLY! Females use the Women’s locker room ONLY! If you’re NOT SURE go to Target."
The retailer's policy allows transgender customers to use the restrooms that match their gender identity.
Town spokeswoman Jessica Waters provided the email to The Daily Times on Wednesday. The Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post first reported on the email in their online editions Tuesday.
She called the message "unprofessional and unacceptable."
"This email was in poor taste, but it’s not reflective of the Town of Ocean City employees," she said. "It’s disappointing to see something that’s so inappropriate to be shared and sent to begin with.”
Waters added: “There certainly is the opportunity for disciplinary action to be taken.”
Maryland public records law prohibits the outcome of governmental personnel decisions to be made public.
Arbin didn't return messages seeking comment Wednesday.
But he told staff members in an email Tuesday morning after he started receiving calls from the media that he wasn't trying to make a political statement about transgender people. He apologized, saying he was only responding to female employees' complaints about men who aren't transgender using women's staff-only changing facilities out of convenience.
"I used humor to make the point. However, this is not the same issue that has been in the news," he said in the message. "I was ONLY looking out for the women of the patrol and was not attempting to put down any group or individual, only maintain a nice facility for the women who choose to use a gender specific facility."
He also made clear he wasn't happy that someone tipped off the media.
"I am bothered by the fact that one of us felt the need to try and make more out of this that it was without first speaking to me in person," he wrote.
In a follow-up email a little over an hour later, he repeated the apology, calling Sunday's email a "careless attempt at humor."
Arbin has been a member of the resort's beach patrol for four decades, becoming captain in 1997, according to a biography on the town's website. During the off-season, he oversees engineering and technology education for Charles County Public Schools.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.