The longtime head of Ocean City's Beach Patrol could face discipline for sending an email instructing employees to use the locker room "that corresponds to your DNA," an Ocean City spokeswoman said Tuesday.
"We are not Target," Melbourne "Butch" Arbin III wrote in an email Sunday to several dozen Beach Patrol members. "Males use the men's locker room only! Females use the women's locker room only!
"If you're not sure," he concluded, "go to Target."
Arbin, a member of the Beach Patrol for 40 years and captain for 20, told The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday that he did not intend to make a political statement about transgender people.
But advocates for transgender Marylanders are calling for disciplinary action, and Ocean City officials called the email "inappropriate."
The email, which was forwarded to The Sun, comes amid a national debate over transgender people and the public bathrooms they may use.
North Carolina passed a law in March that limits transgender people to the public restrooms and showers that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate. The Obama administration is suing North Carolina over the law, and has said that public schools must allow transgender students to use the facilities that are consistent with their gender identity.
Target joined the debate in April with an announcement that employees and customers were welcome to use the restrooms that match their gender identity.
Arbin said his email was not about transgender people, but about complaints that male members of the Beach Patrol had been using a women's locker room out of convenience.
He said about 200 employees have access to the locker rooms at the patrol's headquarters. Many of the bathrooms available to employees are unisex, but he said he had received complaints from female employees about men using the women's locker room.
Arbin said his email was directed toward men who identified as men.
"I don't want the guys to go into the women's room," he said. "I don't want men walking in on them."
He said the references to Target were "a joke because people were leaving the [toilet] seats up in the women's locker room."
"I don't care about being politically correct," he said. "That's one of the problems in the country right now."
Ocean City spokeswoman Jessica Waters called the email "inappropriate."
"There is absolutely no excuse" to address staff that way, she said. "I don't think it's funny."
Waters, who learned of the email from a Sun reporter, said she was not aware of any complaints against Arbin. But she said he could face discipline.
That decision will be up to Ocean City's head of emergency services.
"The comments under the circumstance were inappropriate and the matter is being handled administratively," emergency services director Joe Theobald said in a statement.
"Although it was not the attention of the Beach Patrol captain to insult any individual or group with his words," Theobald said, "his comments are insensitive and are not a true reflection of him, our department or the Town of Ocean City."
Patrick A. Paschall, executive director of FreeState Equality Maryland, said his staff had received a copy of Arbin's email.
Paschall's group advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Marylanders.
Paschall said Arbin's guidance violates the Fairness for All Marylanders Act of 2014, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and sexual identity.
He wants Ocean City officials to take disciplinary action against Arbin.
"We are deeply concerned to see this message go out to any employees group in our state, especially a government agency," he said.
Paschall said the references to Target made fun of transgender people, which he said contributes to an environment of hate and violence.
"I don't know how to express the level of anger," he said, "especially in light of the massacre in Orlando."
Arbin said there are no transgender employees on the Beach Patrol and that he had not received any complaints about the email.
"It's surprising that someone would send it along," he told The Sun.
In a second email to employees Tuesday, Arbin apologized for the first email.
"I am sorry that I offended one or more of the intended recipients," he wrote. "… I was ONLY looking for the women of the patrol and was not attempting to put down any group or individual. …
"I used humor to make the point. However, this is not the same issue that has been in the news. The males that have used the Women's locker room are not using out of necessity or because they are identifying as a woman, they are using it out of convenience."
He also wrote that he was "bothered … that one of us felt the need to try and make more out of this [than] it was without first speaking to me in person."
During the school year, Arbin is a technology resource teacher in Charles County. He is a former Maryland physical education teacher of the year, according to the county schools website.
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