Ex-Virginia cop demands $15 million after sharing locker room with trans colleague

A former Virginia police officer has sued her department, alleging officials violated her privacy by requiring her to share a locker room with a transgender colleague. Now, she wants $15 million in damages.

Former Norfolk Police Officer Meghan Grabow filed the lawsuit alleging that the department did not inform her she would be sharing a women’s locker room with a transgender woman. While Grabow was undressing, she encountered the recruit, who Grabow alleged stared at her “as a man would look at a woman,” Norfolk TV news station WVEC reported.

WAVY reported, citing the complaint, that the recruit “presented as a man” at the time and wore a suit and tie. Grabow was wearing only her underwear, according to the lawsuit.

Related: Virginia congressman's meeting with transgender Democrats erupts into profanity. Then he walked out

CBS affiliate News 3 WTKR reported that Grabow was training the class of recruits when the encounter occurred in 2024. In language misgendering the recruit, the lawsuit alleges that she “made no attempt to dress, behave, or otherwise present himself as anything other than a man.”

Grabow alleges that she raised concerns about the encounter with supervisors and discussed it with other officers. That ultimately led to a meeting with Police Chief Mark Talbot, who said the recruit’s presence in the locker room did not violate department policy. According to the lawsuit, Grabow was told to “learn to deal with it,” while one supervisor allegedly told her, “If you feel unsafe, take your gun into the shower.” Grabow was later suspended without pay, the lawsuit alleges.

Related: A Virginia school board bent over backward to block an LGBTQ+ club. One mom explains why she’s suing

Grabow says her Catholic faith and beliefs about trans people elevated her concerns. Norfolk officials declined to comment to local media outlets, citing pending litigation.

Research by the Williams Institute in 2025 has not found evidence that policies permitting transgender people to use facilities corresponding with their gender identity increase criminal misconduct in those spaces. A 2018 study examining police reports involving assault, sex crimes and voyeurism in public restrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms across Massachusetts found such incidents were exceedingly rare. Researchers found no relationship between communities’ adoption of transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination protections and the number or frequency of reported incidents.

Related: Emails reveal Virginia school officials approved an LGBTQ+ club — until conservative backlash hit

The Norfolk Police Department adopted a written policy in 2020 stating that officers will treat members of the “transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming community (TIGN) with fairness and dignity” and that the department will not discriminate against transgender people or treat them with bias.

Neither Grabow nor the recruit works for the department anymore.

A lawyer for Grabow told WVEC that the encounter violated his client’s privacy “pretty much in the worst way possible.”

“The department was wrong from the beginning in the way that they handled it, by not giving anyone a heads up and shutting down and stepping over the conversation when people were trying to share their traumatic experience,” attorney Scott Lloyd said.

Grabow is demanding a jury trial and seeking $15 million in damages.