The leather-loving California lawmaker eyeing Nancy Pelosi’s House seat defended a transgender wife-beater — and dismissed the concerns of a female gymgoer banished for speaking up about him repeatedly displaying his genitalia in a women’s locker room.
Tish Hyman, a Grammy-nominated musician whose shouting match with Alexis Black, who is transitioning and identifies as a transgender woman, after the incident at a Beverly Hills Gold’s Gym went viral, confronted state senator and self-described “drag queen advocate” Scott Wiener at a town hall-style meeting.
“As a lesbian woman who was attacked in the women’s locker room at Gold’s Gym this week by a self-identifying trans woman with a documented history of domestic violence, I’m deeply concerned about women’s safety in female-only spaces,” she said from the front row just feet from Wiener.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, who is eyeing Pelosi’s seat, gave a word salad answer as he was confronted. Senator Scott Wiener, /X“What would you say to women who are seeking assurance that their safety will be protected from men, who, by California law, can self-identify as women in women-only spaces. Sir, please tell me,” she pleaded.
Wiener stammered in a word-salad defense of Black, who was sentenced to a year in prison in 2022 after pleading guilty to savagely beating his then-wife in Ohio. The male lawmaker even attempted to explain what a woman is.
“We want everyone to be safe. And we also know that we have trans people, both men and women — who are men and women,” he responded.
“So trans women are women,” he added.
Hyman maintained her composure, complimenting Wiener on his legislative accomplishments while urging him to take the matter seriously.
“I’m telling you now, millions of women across America are being harassed and sexually assaulted in locker rooms. I’m a lesbian black woman, I’m not transphobic, I’m not homophobic … but I do see a lot of these bills you’ve passed that are dangerous for women and young children,” she charged.
Had a chance to have a conversation with Senator Weiner. It was an honest one. I am hopeful that this is the first of many conversations we will have regarding women’s safety .
— Tish Hyman (@listen2tish) November 11, 2025
Senator Weiner said he likes working with fresh young people and that he is open to ideas.
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Wiener, 55, who is openly gay, is described as “one of the strongest LGBTQ civil rights champions in the nation” on his state Senate profile.
He’s backed numerous pieces of legislation around the topic, including supporting so-called gender-affirming care for minors, allowing non-binary designations on government IDs and ending the mandatory inclusion of adults who have intercourse with minors on sex-offender registries, arguing that the law “disproportionately targets LGBT young people.”
Hyman’s confrontation with a transgender person in the women’s locker room went viral. Instagram/@listen2tishHe also floated the idea of schools “offering Drag Queen 101 as part of the K-12 curriculum.”
Wiener is a regular fixture at San Francisco’s annual Folsom Street Fair kink festival, where he’s been spotted wearing a leather vest and tie.
“I appreciate your point of view, I appreciate you talking about it, I think we need to protect the safety of all women,” Wiener said after the audience vocally took issue with Hyman asserting that “women and trans women are different things.”
The crowd booed and tried to shout Hyman down, but she held her ground, rising to her feet to face the audience.
“He broke his wife’s jaw so bad she needed reconstructive surgery!” she exclaimed in reference to Black’s vicious assault on his former wife, whose name he adopted as his own.
“I’m telling you right now, men are harassing women in the locker rooms,” she said before taking her seat.
Shifting in his chair as he spoke, Wiener offered the dismissive reply, “That’s obviously incredibly important, and I also know that trans women are also brutalized in this country, so we have to protect the safety of women.”
Hyman then stood up to leave, saying, “I’m not gonna take it … you guys are not protecting women,” before walking toward the exit.
Addressing another black woman in the room, Hyman urged, “You hear me, sister? Don’t let them use our blackness and our civil rights as a reason to pass weird laws for children to transform. It’s wrong,” she said.
“My sister’s in jail, she can’t get free tampons or soap, but she can get free transformation medication. Big pharma at its best. Tired of it!”
In a post about the exchange Hyman shared on X Tuesday afternoon, she wrote, “Had a chance to have a conversation with Senator Wiener. It was an honest one. I am hopeful that this is the first of many conversations we will have regarding women’s safety,” noting Wiener being open to fresh ideas.
“I’ve got plenty, Scott!” she added.
