A Virginia father was suspended from a local pool after alerting officials to a boy competing against girls in several swimming races.

Woodley Pool, located in Fairfax County, claims they are suspending Luis Enrique Fernandez, a father of six, for allegedly using “repeated vulgarity” toward a parent and members of an opposing team and acting in a “threatening and abusive” manner.

However, speaking exclusively to The Daily Wire, Fernandez says the account is not true. The father of six, who has been a paying member of the club since 2019, suspects the Woodley Pool board is punishing him for speaking out about the male competing against females, while using a flimsy pretext — which Fernandez vehemently disputes — as cover.

Fernandez insists he did not use vulgarity or abusive language toward anyone, and around 20 pool members are supporting him. Some have already reached out to the board to complain, but Woodley is standing by its suspension.

But Fernandez, too, is standing by what he did that day.

Speaking to The Daily Wire in a phone interview this week, Fernandez said he was the swim marshal for an under-10 meet when he noticed what appeared to be a boy competing in a girls’ race. Suspecting this was a rule violation — or, at the very least, unfair — Fernandez alerted other officials. Swim marshals generally act to keep safety and order during a meet. 

When no one acted, Fernandez took it upon himself to rectify the situation.

“I think to myself, you know, everything that’s happened just now — nobody’s gonna know about it,” Fernandez told The Daily Wire. “Nobody’s gonna realize that they’ve been racing against a boy. Nobody’s gonna realize that the winner of all these races is this boy. It’s just all gonna be forgotten. Nobody’s gonna realize anything here.”

Noticing that the race results had been posted, and that the male swimmer had won two races, Fernandez “decided to go get a marker and write the word ‘BOY’ next to his name.”

Female athletes and other advocates have been fighting to protect girls’ and women’s sports for years, since Democrats first started advancing policies and rules that allow trans-identifying males in female spaces and sports. President Donald Trump, who successfully ran on this issue during his 2024 run, signed an executive order once he took office to protect female sports. Still, the battle rages on at both the local and state levels, leaving a wake of girls who’ve lost out on scholarship opportunities, titles, and other important achievements. 

On July 13, Fernandez was serving as marshal during a “mini meet” at Woodley when he noticed a male swimmer wearing a girls’ bathing suit competing in a girls’ race.

Both the referee and Woodley’s official team representative did not know what to do when Fernandez flagged the issue, unclear on the rules regarding “transgender” swimmers.

The team rep, Fernandez said, suggested she was against males competing against girls, but also said there was nothing to be done since Northern Virginia Swimming League rules are essentially mum on the issue. Though, as Fernandez noted, the mini meet was effectively independent, not expressly governed by the league.

After he notified officials and received no clear answers, he returned to the pool area and noticed that the boy was again competing against girls. 

“I say, ‘Hey, it’s happening again. The boy is swimming against the girls,’” Fernandez recalled telling officials. “They’re not doing anything about it. Nothing’s happening.”

Serving as marshal, Fernandez was standing in a space on the deck that happened to be positioned near the team that registered the male swimmer in the girls’ events. He told The Daily Wire he saw three women cheering who appeared ready to record the race, which was about to start. 

“They start cheering and getting out their cameras for this race,” Fernandez said. “And so I turn to them and I ask them three questions. I say, ‘Why are you cheering for a boy and a girl’s race? Why did you register a boy for a girl’s race?’ And then I ask, ‘Why can’t he swim with the boys?’” 

“They do not respond,” he continued. “They just — they turn to me and they’re like, flabbergasted that I would even ask, just confused faces that turn to me — they did not respond. So, I walked in front of them, walked past them, further down the pool, pretty far away from ’em, probably 10 to 15 feet away from them. I’m just watching the rest of the race.”

Fernandez said it’s possible that he said “bulls***” or even “f***ing bulls***” (though he finds that highly unlikely), as he walked away, but maintains that he never directed invective at the women. He also emphasized that he’s not even sure if he did swear while walking away, and noted that these women appeared to have been filming the race. 

“They’re recording the whole thing — why haven’t they shared the video of me being ‘abusive’ to them?” he said. “Like, share the video.” 

Woodley has not shared any video evidence with The Daily Wire.

Immediately after the race, Fernandez said he was approached by the pool rep and told that the “other pool would like you to leave the deck.”

“I think I just said, ‘okay,’ and then I left,” he said. “I went to the pavilion area where they were serving concessions.”

Fernandez told The Daily Wire he spoke up about the issue since he was a marshal, but also because he’s been in a similar situation before and did not speak out. 

“I resolved when it happened the first time that if this ever happened again, I would not be a coward,” he said. 

Fernandez said that three years ago, there was a soccer player at one of his children’s games who was dominating in a girls’ competition. He suspected the player was male. At the time, he said he was not completely sure and didn’t speak out, though he considered it unfair for a boy to compete against girls. It was later confirmed to him by a coach that the player was indeed male.  

“It’s just ridiculous that this is all happening all the time,” he said. 

Not only is the issue of safety and fairness important to him, Fernandez also doesn’t believe it’s right to confuse children so young about gender and sex. 

“What are we doing with our children during childhood?” he said. “We’re trying to teach them and give them the tools to function. We’re trying to give them the tools to be independent later. And I think it does them a complete disservice to say that everything’s the same. It’s just not the same. There’s no reason to set up this false sameness, you know?” 

Fernandez provided documentation to The Daily Wire showing Woodley Pool’s communication with him about his suspension. He was notified on July 16 that he was suspended for the remainder of the 2025 swim season, and he was also banned from any other pools where Woodley was competing. Fernandez was told the suspension was due to “violations of WRA rules and the WRA abuse policy,” but no further details were provided. 

Fernandez wrote back to the board, specifically Board President Matthew Erwin, and asked how he supposedly violated the abuse policy. He also highlighted that, per the rules being cited against him, Fernandez never received a proper warning.

Instead, the club sent an email — which landed in his junk folder — notifying him there would be a board meeting about the matter, not even two hours before the meeting started. Fernandez did not notice the email until days later.

He was also suspended for more than three days, which is said to be the maximum penalty due to “repeated violations,” though Fernandez is not even accused of repeated violations. 

The board responded to that point, arguing that there is leeway in the rules if the violation is so egregious it falls under “abuse against a member,” which includes “sexual abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, and emotional abuse.” Fernandez allegedly uttering profanity while walking away from the women, apparently, constitutes such abuse. 

The Daily Wire reached out to Woodley via President Erwin’s email on Tuesday, inquiring about the violation and about Woodley’s stance or policy regarding trans-identifying swimmers. Erwin did not address anything regarding “trans” swimmers, but sent The Daily Wire an email that the pool sent to members about Fernandez’s suspension. 

“The Woodley Pool Board is a volunteer organization and strives to be responsive to its community while remaining apolitical,” a statement to The Daily Wire said. “The WRA Board has summarized its disciplinary review and determination regarding a Woodley marshal and visiting pool guests.” 

The email to board members reads in part: 

Dear Woodley Member, the WRA Board is reaching out to primary account holders to inform you of a potential news story involving Woodley Pool and the reaction to an unsubstantiated allegation of a rule violation during the July 13 Mini Meet. 

[…] The marshal made an informal and unsubstantiated allegation of a rules violation, was observed pacing and acting agitated in front of a visiting team’s area, and was ultimately removed from the pool deck by the Woodley Swim Rep for making profane and abusive remarks to the parent and grandparent of a swimmer as well as a spectator from another pool in the presence of minor children. The parent reported being fearful for their physical safety during the incident.

[…] Given the potential impact to WRA’s safe operations, local reputation and ability to host future meets, the Board’s unanimous decision to suspend this individual’s membership for the remainder of the 2025 season is based solely on the violation of WRA’s code of conduct with respect to visiting pool guests while serving as a marshal, in accordance with the Board’s “right to deny the use of the Association’s facilities to any person who fails to comply with these rules.”

Fernandez noted that the letter to members claims the board’s decision was “unanimous,” but noted that his wife, Diem Tran, is on the board and was not included in any of the discussions about his suspension. 

Fernandez told The Daily Wire that his wife was voted to the board after the summer of 2021, joking that this was likely because he and his wife are both minorities and the board likely thought their views matched their own. 

“She’s cool, her husband is Latin,” he quipped, “and she’s Vietnamese — diversity!”