Single sex toilets in leisure centres

If they let transwomen in they legally can't refuse any male, so yes it needs to be amended ASAP, make them aware of this.

The 1992 workplace regulations state that single sex facilities must be offered unless they are single occupancy with floor to ceiling doors.

Nope. Private companies also have to abide by equality laws. They can't just make it up to suit themselves.

No. Its you who is mistaken.

Companies can provide unisex toilets but they must comply with current existing legislation around unisex toilets.

Otherwise spaces are separated and determined by single sex.

Eg women's are for biological women, transmen and female non binary people.

Men's are for biological men, transwomen and male non binary people. And transmen who pass sufficiently for the men's to be more appropriate for them.

There is no obligation to provide single sex spaces. They can all be compliant unisex spaces. But otherwise, they are single sex.

No. This is completely incorrect. "Gender" is not a protected characteristic in law so it would be sex discrimination for them to do this.

My local leisure centre has had mixed changing rooms for at least the 20 years I’ve been going there. It’s always incredibly busy.

They might be guilty of indirect discrimination if they don’t provide separate facilities, I believe.

Our lesuire centre has mixed sex changing - they are all lockable cubicles and the showers are totally open plan.

Toilets are single cubicle (built into the wall so no), each door faces into changing area and are mixed sex use.

Surely this is easiest way forward

@Namechangetry am really interested in why you think it's a breach of the law as my office has no single sex toilets and where I swim has no single sex changing. I would probably prefer single sex space but my understanding is there no law being broken.

Any room labelled as ‘women’ must be single sex.

It doesn’t matter where the room is or what it’s for.

In addition, employers have to provide single sex toilets (and changing rooms if needed).

I mean viable given the ruling and bringing the whole issue out into the open.

Many years ago, noone would have been thinking about who is in the changing room but risks have increased and people are pushing back. Even gender neutral or private changing rooms are more vulnerable than female only.

https://www.womensrights.network/post/leisure-centres-putting-women-and-girls-at-riskpress-release

Do you think private companies don't have to pay the minimum wage either? The law is the law, either it's completely mixed sex (and a mixed sex shared changing room would clearly be illegal indirect discrimination against women) or it's divided by biology.

A free for all isn't a viable business model.

Many people would rather not use a leisure centre than use mixed sex facilities.

I could be wrong but I don't think a commercial organisation is required to provide single sex spaces. I think building regulations do require new builds and refurbished buildings to provide single sex toilets if space allows. If however an organisation does prove single sex spaces then they can enforce the use of that space in line with SC judgement.

I think other service providers might be required to provide separate single sex spaces and I think schools might also have to.

So if men can't have exactly what they want they will ruin it for everyone?

And people wonder why men aren't wanted in women's single sex spaces.

And then thet can be taken to court for indirect discrimination against women, as women are more likely to need single sex changing rooms than men and so are more disadvantaged than men if you make things mixed sex.

PS got any receipts for 'likely to be harmless?'

PPS , 'shut up and let the men in dresses in or you'll be forced to change in front of all the men and then you'll be sorry' isn't a great look.

You realise that the consequence of mass complaints is likely to be that the leisure centre moves to unisex changing rooms, as many already have? It really goes down to whether you want to have one or two people who are likely to be harmless/more afraid of people looking at them than they are interested in looking at you in the changing room, or just have a free for all.

Yes I had another crack at the organisers of my town's 'women only' swimming session this week. They had no clue what the ruling means and said they didn't have to change their 'inclusive' definition of 'women' because 'no cis women have complained'!

It'll take time to get places complying with the law, especially when there are moves around to confuse eg previous posts that you can have 'single gender' or 'women and transwomen', or that it doesn't apply to private companies. The law applies to everyone, and if you call something women's/female/ladies/single sex, that means sex not gender.

Wrong. Single gender isn't a thing, legally speaking.

There is single sex or mixed sex. That's it.

Companies can absolutely say mens changing rooms / "others" or vice versa

No. This is patently untrue.
If a space is designated as single sex, then it must be single sex, as in biological sex. There is no recourse for an organisation to say they themselves permit trans women to use their female toilets, because they’d be breaking the law in doing so.

No, this is incorrect

Incorrect. To provide toilets or changing rooms that are separated in some manner you have to use the single sex exemptions - that automatically excludes transwomen from the female spaces. You can not legally assign a changing room to a single gender as it would not be proportionate for a changing room.

The options are single sex or mixed sex only

If they declare them single gender would that not be discriminatory on the grounds of sex as they would be allowing some people of a particular sex in but not others?

Anyone saying that have to change everything is wrong. It is up to private companies how they classify their changing rooms / bathrooms. All the SC ruling does is say that if a company wants to say this area is for cis women/ people born female only then that is in their right.