The debate over gender policies in public schools has been simmering for years, but in Davis, California, it boiled over in spectacular fashion.
At a Sept. 18 school board meeting, local activist Beth Bourne, chair of Moms for Liberty in Yolo County, stripped down to a bikini mid-speech to protest policies allowing transgender students to use girls’ locker rooms.
Bourne began calmly enough, introducing herself as a parent in the Davis Unified School District. But then she pivoted: “Right now, we require our students to undress for PE class. So I’m just going to give you an idea what that looks like when I undress.” With that, she peeled off her outer clothes, standing before the stunned board in swimwear.
GOOD FOR HER: A 50-year-old mother was protesting the district’s policy allowing students to use locker rooms based on gender identity.
Stripped down to a bathing suit at a California School Board meeting, asking officials: “If you are disrupted by a 50-year-old woman in a… pic.twitter.com/4XHgHPYVB0
— Desiree (@DesireeAmerica4) September 28, 2025
Her point was blunt: if grown adults in a professional setting found the demonstration uncomfortable, how much more invasive must it feel for young girls being told they must share intimate spaces with biological males?
“If the adults don’t feel comfortable watching someone, and I’m a 50-year-old woman, how can they expect girls to feel comfortable doing that in the locker room?” she later told CBS News.
The board scrambled. Members interrupted Bourne, called a recess, and when she tried to resume her protest after the break, they called in police. Vice President Hiram Jackson briefly halted the meeting twice, while Trustee Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald later blasted Bourne’s actions as “very inappropriate.” She added that the board would meet with legal counsel to discuss how to prevent similar disruptions.
For Bourne, though, the shock was the point. She has been addressing this same issue for three years at monthly meetings, warning that policies based solely on self-identification are reckless. This time, she escalated. “I thought I made a really good point,” she said afterward.
The scene in Davis illustrates the stalemate: parents using dramatic measures to force attention, and officials responding with procedural crackdowns. Whether the bikini stunt changes policy remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: it ensured that a debate long confined to agendas and fine print was impossible to ignore.
