A female police officer is suing the city of Norfolk, Virginia and its police chief for $15 million after the police department forced her to unknowingly share a women’s locker room with a male who identifies as a female.
Army veteran and practicing Catholic Meghan Grabow filed a lawsuit this month claiming the city of Norfolk, through their police department, intentionally inflicted emotional distress on her by forcing her to change in front of a man identifying as a woman.
Grabow also claims the police department denied her right to exercise her religion by being required to refer to the male recruit with female pronouns.
The former Norfolk Police Officer is seeking $15 million in compensatory damages, according to The Virginian-Pilot.
The suit describes an incident on August 12, 2024, when Grabow was changing in a women’s locker room at a downtown police station. She alleges on that day, the department’s new “transgender” recruit – a man – walked in on Grabow in her underwear. Although the man claimed to “identify” as a woman, Grabow reported he wore men’s clothing and looked at her “as a man looks at a woman.”
Multiple sources report when Grabow complained about the incident to police officials, she was told to either “learn to deal with it” or “find another locker room.” Grabow also claims she was advised to “take her gun into the shower” if she felt unsafe.
The incident sparked significant controversy throughout the police station. One female police officer allegedly objected to the man’s presence in the women’s locker room, but said the department “made no accommodations.”
Another woman reported a separate encounter in the locker room, during which the male recruit used her towel and saw her in her sports bra.
Norfolk Officer Martin Powers reportedly supported Grabow and the other women, stating the department failed to notify female officers that a male identifying as a woman would begin using the female locker room.
“How is that going to work?” asked Powers. “Where does this person, what shower do they use, what locker room? Are we figuring this out?”
In a meeting a few days after Grabow’s complaint, Norfolk Police Chief Mark Talbot allegedly directed all officers to refer to the male recruit as “she.” Talbot also stated he was not legally required to notify female officers of the male recruit’s presence in the locker room.
Officer Jennifer Baron spoke up in the meeting, saying the lack of notification regarding the “transgender” recruit’s presence “makes us feel dismissed, invisible, and not valued.”
Talbot responded:
Baron later told Talbot, “We are feeling violated. There’s a lot of pent-up frustration. … I don’t feel safe or protected at my job.”
The Virginian-Pilot cited portions of the lawsuit, which is not yet public:
Her suit also describes the Norfolk Police Department’s alleged retaliation against her for speaking up.
Grabow’s fiancé, a Norfolk police sergeant, was reportedly warned not to talk about the incident and reminded that “his promotion was on the line.”
Grabow also claims in 2025, Norfolk Police Department indefinitely suspended her without payment due to a minor traffic violation that occurred prior to the locker room incident. She had been a Norfolk Officer since 2017.
Officer Powers was also terminated from the department. He is suing for $5 million on violations of religious freedom and retaliatory firing.
Five other female officers have willingly left the Norfolk Police Department, “at least in part” due to the transgender recruit issue, The Virginian-Pilot reports. The male recruit who used the women’s locker room has also reportedly left the department.
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