Reports that a man dressed as a woman entered a locker room at a Gaithersburg gym Monday have given new ammunition to a conservative group’s efforts to overturn a bill that extends anti-discrimination rights to transgendered people.

But others, including bill sponsor and Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, have decried the unwelcome visit as little more than a public-relations stunt.

A woman who was in a locker room at Rio Sport and Health in Gaithersburg said a man dressed in heavy female makeup and a blue skirt entered the women’s locker room, frightening patrons who were in various states of undress. The incident was publicized by the group, Citizens for a Responsible Government, which protested Trachtenberg’s bill.

The group has argued that the bill, which passed in November, puts women and children at greater risk to assault when they should have the expectation of privacy.

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“It’s not something women are accustomed to, I don’t think women want to be accustomed to,” Citizens for a Responsible Government spokeswoman Michelle Turner said Wednesday.

Kelly Nicholson, general manager for the gym, said the person exited the locker room quickly and the gym could not verify that the incident had occurred. The offender has not been identified, and Nicholson said she questioned whether the person was actually transgendered.

She assured the safety of all gym members at Rio.

Turner said CRG members have collected about 5,000 signatures of the 25,000 required to place a referendum on the November ballot seeking to overturn the transgender bill. Half of those signatures are due Feb. 4, Turner said.

Because of that impending deadline, Trachtenberg accused the group of staging the incident to drum up support for its cause. She said she knows of no reports of similar incidents.

“I really do wonder about it,” Trachtenberg said.

Turner said her group had nothing to do with it.

“Absolutely not. No,” Turner said. “We don’t know who this individual is other than what Rio has had to say about it.”

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com