Entitled male refused access to female changing area (despite wearing skirt)

There is a Lorraine Coombes who is a couple of years younger than Anne who has had some genuine swimming success and has since worked as a coach for several clubs including Reading and Ealing.

Whether she is Anne’s younger sister or wife I can’t be sure. Seems unlikely to be two completely unrelated, same age people called Coombes associated with Reading Swimming Club.

and we know that many late transitioning males take on aspects of their ex wives & sisters appearances and interests.

https://www.worldaquatics.com/athletes/1064461/lorraine-coombes

Anne claims to have been involved in Reading Swimming Club for 30 years which I suppose would coincide with the parenting years (Anne has two adult children, a son and a daughter) but whether those 30 years have been consistent and if volunteering at events for minors has been part of it I can’t tell from a quick Google.

I would be very interested to know too @DreamItDoIt

Exactly parents who have previously been involved, perfectly normal. But does Anne fit this profile? Did Anne's children swim and was Anne involved? If not then massive red flag.

Any man deciding to start volunteering in children's/youths sport is a massive red flag.

My experience was of a mix of swim parents and older officials who had started out as swim parents or swimmers and then carried on officiating. The sport relies on the older ones, they have the time that current swim parents lack away from the competitions their DC are in.

I intend to carry on officiating after mine have left home to help out club out. I officiate at meets when mine aren't necessarily swimming too.

So from what's been said Anne only started volunteering at swimming events when Anne started wearing a wig and a skirt. When Anne was Paul they didn't. Mmmmmm.

As others have stated it's very unusual for an adult to volunteer like this when their children aren't involved. As a parent or volunteer you don't go anywhere near changing rooms.

Swimming parents need to put pressure on British Swimming over this and Masters women need to push back against Anne competing in women's events.

How about awful crimes in actual swimming. Have they all forgotten about this, or do they think because a lot of it happened in Ireland it doesn't count?

Only 30 years ago, at least some of them lived through it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/where-is-george-gibney

Sadly. a similar dynamic exists elsewhere in children’s sport (and other elite, highly competitive activities such as ballet and orchestra).

You’d hope that we as a society would be able to learn from such awful crimes as the American Gymnasts and Scottish Footballers were subjected to at the hands of their coaches, but alas, we seem to be doomed to repetition.

I’ve been reading this as an ex swim mum who spent hundreds of hours at competitions at Ponds Forge, including over a hundred poolside as a team manager. I’ve been racking my brain to picture the changing rooms, blaming the menopause because I can’t. Then it hit me, I have never ever been in the changing rooms. Despite being the female the girls went to if they needed anything.

There should be a question as to why any officials were in the changing rooms let alone Anne.

The parents who have complained about this need to be commended. Unless things have improved dramatically in the 10 yrs since my Dds stopped swimming the elite clubs did not take criticism well, there was always a “if you don’t like it your child will be asked to leave” policy, at least in the club we were at. Whilst this situation isn’t a criticism of a club, the unhealthy dynamic made any interaction difficult.

Your collage definitely brings the message home in a way that the Lia Thomas issue can't. Even though Lia is simply a younger version of Anne.

Right, time for me to step away from the internet for the day. I think I'm bordering on being a bit too invested in this story!

Just popping this link down to my post over on the other thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4859990-pool-rules-changed-after-outcry-over-trans-official-in-change-room?reply=128023397

I expect The Monitors will report it.

’Under Zir’s Eye’

Fair point.

The allies in key positions of responsibility won't get that luxury though if they are asked the questions directly on camera. Many will avoid interviews but presumably some can't if they want to do their day jobs e.g. Keir Starmer.

Hopefully they will be having their eyes prised open a little as a result of this getting in to the press.

It's very easy for everyone to default to a Be Kind way of thinking, because most people are decent people and don't want to cause someone else upset. Anne has every right to live a happy and fulfilled life as a transwoman, but that right does not extend to publicly rejecting a very delicately handled and discreet kind act (the first story in the hotel) with an assumed entitlement to women's spaces... and then compounding that by unnecessarily choosing to walk past naked teenage girls changing. I would hope that most swim coaches would feel an outrage at that and it will kick start a change in how women's and girls' spaces are protected 🤞 Riley Gaines is doing a great job of raising awareness too but Anne's age (versus Lia's) makes this easier for the public to grasp I think.

“Anne is going to be thrown to the wolves as a "lone bad apple" by the trans community.”

No. They’re going to remain resolutely silent about Coombes’ barging in on teenage girls when they’re in a state of undress behaviour until it blows over.

Reflecting on this story a bit more, I almost feel a little sorry for Anne right now.

Assuming this does keep momentum in the press next week (🤞🤞 hopefully a Sharron Davies TV interview and then on from there 🤞🤞), Anne is going to be thrown to the wolves as a "lone bad apple" by the trans community. They will need to shore up the hatches in the hope that nobody starts to wonder if regular transwomen have similar patterns of behaviour. The stark contrast between Blanchard's two types of transwomen will have both clambering for disassociation for two subtly different reasons a) not having a need to see women to feed a sexual thrill b) being exposed as someone who does.

It's a bit of a catch 22. All of Anne's past blogs are evidence that bad apples will say whatever they need to say about how they have always felt like women etc.

Isla Bryson was also thrown to the wolves but the impact was pretty small (except on Isla I expect) because it seemed like it only applied to prison situations as far as the casually observing public went. This has far much of a wider reach because it's a very every day thing for most of the general public - everyone can imagine why a teenage girl would hate being seen naked in a changing room in this way. They don't even need to know anything about Three Letter Acronym to have that empathy. In Anne's own words, they will "see a dirty old man perving at [their] little girls in the changing rooms".

It's also quite worrying that some swimming coaches believe that rights to female only spaces can be trampled on as well.

I think that we’re seeing a process that many transwidows have described in their accounts playing out in real time, on a very public stage. It’s illuminating and saddening in equal measure.

When the pink and blue is no longer a carte blanche…

Just read a bit of that mastodon. WTAF! A fortnight ago this individual calls what seems to be their romantic partner ‘anti trans’ because the person (described as a woman who has been with this individual through whole transition) had an opinion on trans people in sport. Not sure what i
that was. The partner told AC to fuck off. I can only assume that was the end of the relationship.

Because they have been posting in those two weeks about finding a new relationship. I guess to some people ‘love’ is quickly cured with a replacement. It was only 4 days after that they were posting about finding new relationships.

I mean, when it is all and only about ‘you’, no introspection is needed.

I think I am comfortable in my previous assessments of this person. This is not a person who is about to ever put the needs of female people ahead of their own even though they seem to recognise those needs superficially in their words. It really is all about them and only about them.

It shows in many of their own self-published comments.

What is a 65 year old competing in?

Masters swimming, in the 65-69 age category.

With veruccas flying around all over the place.

Which is at the least odd.

I can't think why I would want to walk through a changing area if I wasn't changing.

Pool changing rooms are usually wet and often quite warm.

At least Anne obliquely acknowledged that Anne can still compete as a TW, presumably in Male or Open categories. Anyway....heart of stone, etc 😁