Alert for Bannatyne members

Exactly.

Yeah lunchtimes at the pure gym I go to the changing room is very crowded. Not to mention the showers are not very private at pure gym.

I used to go to a PureGym & remembering how crowded the communal changing rooms could get, that’s got to be a huge relief for the women members.

Interesting. Does anyone know what prompted Pure Gym’ as change of heart? Were they losing female members? Have there been problems (indecent exposure, assaults for example) at their gyms?

Duncan Bannatyne stated this on X Twitter yesterday. 31/08/23

'Correct Bannatyne & Pure Gym both safeguard single sex spaces'

In answer to this post.

'@VirginActiveUK allow men to self ID into the women’s changing rooms

Take your business elsewhere , @Bannatyne ‘s are committed to upholding the single sex exemption in the EA and @PureGym have recently confirmed they also have reverted back to sex based changing rooms'.

The policy of using the exception has to be made clear when a new member joins. It is very straightforward to put a paragraph explaining the policy on a registration form.

It's not a good idea to have a policy that's not well understood and only gets pulled out to sort out an embarrassing situation and conflict.

There are plenty of gender segregated gyms available so it's not as if this is excluding people from gym use. It's providing an inclusive service alternative for people that want female only, not free choice based on identity.

Im afraid that judges are just as likely to buy into nonsense as anyone else has done. Even more so as they fall over themselves to be fair to the underdog

The ideal is to be clear in advance that the changing rooms are divided on the basis of biological sex at birth and for those who prefer mixed sex facilities, they are ... over there. Trouble is with all the fake Stonewall law around, organisations tend to capitulate at the first sign of a threat so we've never had the man demanding access to naked women and girls make his demands in the courts.
Although, given the desperate measures trans extremist groups / individuals have gone to in "educating" the judiciary with their preferred versions of reality, I'm not sure how many judges believe in the lady penis ? 🤔

Out of interest how does this work on the ground.

So a man who says hes a woman comes along, joins the club, says he is a woman on his paper work, enters the changing rooms (female)

What does the member of staff say and do?

do they say, I think you are a biological male and therefore please use the male changing rooms?

I saw someone mention a Leeds one, so there are 3, possibly 4.

In reading twitter, there seems to be three of his gyms allowing male people into the female changing rooms. Another one in Aberdeen maybe (??) and Belfast and somewhere else.

I wonder if the issue is a weak manager of the particular Bannatyne's who wants to avoid confrontation, hoping an issue will just go away.

I also considered emailing to say that I appreciate the policy and that it’s one of the main reasons I chose them, but I’m not sure if it will go straight to the gym manager rather than the head office, so wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea.

I joined a Bannatynes and this policy is one of the reasons. It’s nice to feel confident that women only means just that. Obviously it’s still possible that someone will ignore the rules, but knowing that Duncan is clear on this and will address the issue makes me feel better, at a different gym I don’t know if men would be allowed in so I don’t want to take the risk.

Fantastic @HermioneWeasley

Any response from Duncan OP ?

I am fairly certain Duncan Bannatyne will not be happy with those not implementing single sex changing rooms. I hope so anyway. He had always been firm in his stance on the issue.

Bannatyne is on the money you say? My girl has just started using changing rooms all alone. A bit of reassurance won't go amiss and it is absolutely worth the money.

Yes, that's absolutely his position. I'm sure he'll sort it. He's said so many times.

Oh wow that is a (sadly) unusual stance to take!

I have such respect for Duncan Bannatyne. He has straight-up said that the changing rooms in his gyms are single-sex, and he doesn't back down. He shows the other gyms how it's done.

Good for him! Good to see someone being sensible.

@HermioneWeasley duncan bannatyne has responded on a twitter thread re the Belfast dad if you want to try to message him.