Single sex toilets in leisure centres

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My local authority leisure centre allows TW to use single sex female toilets and changing rooms

I queried this, following recent Supreme Court judgement

They said they follow guidance from UK Active, found here https://www.ukactive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Transgender-Guidance-22-11-2022.pdf

I have contacted UK Active, urging them to update their guidance

I encourage you to do the same

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).

@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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Sorry I wasn't clear enough, single use toilets ie the whole room is lockable for one person, are lawful. If your office has mixed sex toilets that aren't that, they're breaking health and safety law.

Same with single person changing rooms, they're lawful as they're single use (though more dangerous for women as PP has posted) What isn't lawful is dividing provision but doing it in any other way other than sex. Like the 'womens' changing room at Fife or Darlington hospitals.

They can provide unisex spaces but those have to meet specific requirements.

And most already do.

The problems are gkijg to arise where they've simply renamed women's (and some men's) toilets (for example) as 'gender neutral' and aren't complaint.

@Catopia There are still enough local papers around to feature Articles and Headlines like "Young people especially girls being put at risk by having men changing near them"
Opting out of provision for Single Sex is not a viable choice for a business or a Local Authority.

This has become the most boring topic since Brexit!

Well tell the men to stop fussing and just use the men's facilities then and we can stop taking about it.

As if the person on reception is in charge of toilets or company policy.

You have to start somewhere! This is law now. They should be abiding by it.

The write to the company director or head of operations.

It’s not brow beating service staff who are not decision makers.

If it's local authority owned then write to whoever has cabinet responsibility for leisure on your council.

My point is more that 20 years ago people weren't thinking about or having these conversations.

Even a few years ago it wouldn't have been on my mind. But the more these conversations are happening, the more people are having to take a position - like the courts - and if might be something they need to revise.

I don't think anyone is suggesting browbeating staff but politely asking frontline staff is also a good idea. They can then feedback to management that there is public concern amongst actual customers. That, coupled with writing to head office, is more likely to get results than only doing one or the other.

My thoughts are that it’s getting very tedious seeing people misusing AIBU for their own soapbox.

Seriously?? How many more threads on this topic can we need!

In that case they would be open to a discrimination claim.

If there is a need for a men's changing room then there will equally be a need for a women's changing room.

If the company provides single sex spaces for men but not for women then that is clear direct discrimination on the ground of sex (unless there was some particular reason that only men would need such a space - can't think what that might be though).

Yes. There are two major pieces of research in this area. The 2018 UCLA study found no correlation between trans-inclusive policies and increased risk in bathrooms and locker/changing rooms, and the more recent Massachusetts study which compared states with and without gender identity inclusive policies for bathrooms and locker/changing rooms found low rates of safety violations in bathrooms overall, and no significant difference between trans-inclusive and non-inclusive areas.

In a global study of all reported incidents involving biological men on biological women in female bathrooms, only one of the perpetrators identified as transgender, and only them and one other was presenting as women for the purposes of accessing that space - all of the rest were male-identifying and male-presenting males.

So yes, there is plenty of data on the "receipts".

In contrast, 36% of transgender women using male bathrooms have been assaulted, 70% of transgender people avoid using bathrooms in public due to fear, and 8% have had UTIs because of holding it in to avoid using public restrooms.

In the meantime, I would say anecdotally that there are a lot of women who don't want to use unisex changing rooms, which is how a lot of spaces are going to choose to navigate this. Council leisure centres in two previous areas where I've lived moved to doing this, and really it just results in no one having a proper shower which is not great for public health either.