Virgin Active changing rooms segregated by gender identity

Unless they said they felt something on the inside, then it wouldn't.

Wouldn't a male body exposed in a female changing room be flashing in law?

If anyone hears back from their club, would you mind updating here? I will do likewise. Thank you

Clear legal info in the link below - VA have every right to exclude male bodied adults - irrespective of how they identify, with or without a GRC (vast majority without).

They either don’t know this or they choose to utterly disregard the safety, privacy, dignity and equity of access to their female customers.

My gym (not VA) has open showers in the ladies. I would go mad if they brought in this policy.

legalfeminist.org.uk/2020/07/17/does-the-law-say-that-trans-women-are-women/

Ten years ago? Virgin active announcing that all the changing rooms were mixed sex? There would be outrage. And the membership would disappear. And I include men in that.

The only reason they are doing it is because they have come under ideological pressure.

And, more to the point, most of their membership don't realise that the management have a choice.

Clever to bring this in when Covid restrictions have closed changing rooms ( at least at my gym and the local pool ) so no one will notice till it’s been in place for months ...

Not a member but if I were I would cancel on this basis. Absolutely wrong on all levels. I’m sick to death of women being put upon for this issue. I don’t see the same happening to men (I don’t think they’d put up with it).
If VA wants to cater for everyone then it needs to offer male / female / family / and a separate mixed changing room for people who want to use non-gender specific changing rooms but who do not have young children with them.
That will involve putting their hands in their pockets to create these additional areas but surely being completely inclusive cannot have a price put on it..?

I read the Equality Act as conferring an ability / a discretion to permit sex segregation where it is proportionate etc. That means that it is up to the service provider in question and of course, it is more bother as it has to be justified etc

What it certainly doesn't have is any discretion to segregate by 'gender identity'.

Hardly surprising given that many people don't have one; what possible justification could there be to segregate by 'gender identity'?

Evelyn don't forget that 14 year old upwards use these gyms and changing rooms. I'm pretty sure there's a law against that.

Oh thank god!

That’s true Evelyn but where on earth would it be proportionate to invoke the exemption if not in the case of a room where women are naked and expect to be only in the presence of other women.

If this isn’t a suitable case then there is no suitable case.

I don’t fancy sharing a changing room with a strange bloke any more than anyone else. However I don’t think it is right to say that these organisations are misunderstanding the law. I don’t think (happy to be proved wrong)that there is any ‘right’ to single sex spaces - I read the Equality Act as conferring an ability / a discretion to permit sex segregation where it is proportionate etc. That means that it is up to the service provider in question and of course, it is more bother as it has to be justified etc. Of course there are some building/ health and safety regulations in relation to toilets etc which provide for separate facilities in some cases, but that’s a different thing.

Ann Sinnott's case cannot come up quick enough.

I too used to be a member of VA and many women walk around naked, discreetly, but still naked, in the changing rooms.

This policy is insane. And totally unnecessary.

@imissthesouth I don’t think it was actually in them but outside in the hallways and at the entrances - they said they would have been able to see who it was anyway

I have emailed asking for clarification, and said I would cancel the membership we have had for 14 years if true.

@Queenoftheashes
Why is there CCTV in changing rooms in the first place?

Personally I would never go, nor allow my children to go if this is the case. Unfortunately I think that with the way the world is headed this will be the norm.😳

No way would I ever entertain the idea of going there if that was the case.

I saw this the other day. I will be cancelling mine and my 2 daughters' memberships if this is correct.

Check with your gyms - it could well be a manager mistaking the law.

Please tell me that this isn't happening.

I love my gym but ..... I've asked for clarification on this and if it's true, I won't be going back

The voice alone made me start - seeing his mug didn’t help.

At least VA is a private company - I work for the NHS and the organisation I work for is not far off this, even though the staff is about 85% female. I was recently asked in the equality and diversity monitoring form whether I was Trans and for my gender identity but I wasn't asked for my sex. It's bloody endemic.

I was in a VA shower once in the female changing rooms. They had like semi transparent cubicles and I thought I saw the shadow of a man in there having a wank. It was terrifying. When I came out he had gone and I might have dreamt it but the shower was still running. They said they would have it on cctv... presumably now they wouldn’t check though.

Virgin Healthcare have asked for Gender on the school immunisation forms for children. Gah!