I am about to ID as a man

[YesItsADebate]

In 1.5 hours, I will be identifying as a gay man who does not conform with male gender stereotypes. I expect my local leisure facility to comply with the Swim England guidelines and agree that I am entitled to access the men-only swimming sessions, the male showers and toilets and to wear swimming trunks. I also expect them to re-educate any other man who objects to any of the above.

In other words, I have a meeting with the local swimming pool at 10 to see whether or not I’ll be resorting to topless swimming and public nudity tonight in an effort to prove my point that the Swim England guidelines are ridiculous

Wish me luck!

I have always wanted to wear a beard...

Remember to pack your she-pee for the urinals.

Toomany you must feel absolutely sickened by the self id proposals as you surely are aware they will harm people like your child.

Toomany.

I’m sorry to hear that you and your child have been through such difficult and stressful times, and I’m glad that he is now beginning to feel happier.

This is a potentially upsetting question, so I apologise, but I am wondering about the risk to your child if they are the only female-bodied person in a men’s changing facility. How do you and he minimise this risk?

I just wanted to let you know I think you are awesome OP

This thread has had me entertained all afternoon. When you described your outfit and had to sit straight faced I LOLed at my desk.
Bravo OP.

Off to read the thread about self ID protest day and hope I can get involved...

Just saw this on twitter, 25 pages to go through...OP is showing he has truly big balls pulling this off.

We need a mumsnet meet (in the summer) at the Hampstead heath men's pond. Tip off some friendly journalists. Invade en masse

Oh please please invite me !

Mind you I think the men's pond is still just for men but the women's pond is for self ID women. So the men would be in their rights to kick us out, I think...

OP - you are my hero

And yy - "Man Friday" would be a brilliant campaign. Every Friday we self-ID as men and do manly things, whether that's using the men's changing rooms in Top Man and M&S, swimming in the Men's Pool or asking our GP to have our prostate checked

Note- I will not be playing golf on a Friday. I'm not playing from the men's tees!!

I'm in for the swim at the men's club. Let's do it. I didn't even know it existed!

I hear you mister. Go for it! If genitals d9nt make a woman then they dont make a man either. Hope u raise awareness.

Mind you I think the men's pond is still just for men but the women's pond is for self ID women. So the men would be in their rights to kick us out, I think...

I didn't think their statement specified transwomen only - I think it just said trans - in which case, the mens is just as open to transmen as the women's is for transwomen.

Oh! For some reason I thought they only changed the women's pond to trans pond.

Ah, no, all the statements just say the 'ladies pond' - the blokes are staying silent and hoping no-one notices perhaps.

I hadn't realised they had different management committees - I had assumed all 3 ponds were of one mind - but no, whilst all the lifeguards have had trans compliance training, it's only the women's one that felt they needed to open to the opposite sex.

On them being ‘within their rights to throw us out’ (paraphrased) - That’s the whole point - if men can self-ID and access all women’s spaces, then women who have self-ID’d cannot be prevented from accessing men’s spaces. If everyone thinks it’s just fine and dandy to demand that women make room in their spaces for any man who decides he is a man, then a woman is just as much entitled to decide she is a man and to access any and all men’s spaces.

I do think the mass swim is a great idea, but I actually think multiple small, individual shows of protest such as the OPs brilliant exercise will be much more effective. Otherwise we risk the media turning it into just another mad stunt, and many people dismissing it and not paying much attention. What we need is for a) companies and institutions to understand that if they’re going to play to the TRA agenda then they can expect a furious pushback from women which will impact on all their customers in various inconvenient and uncomfortable ways and b) If that company doesn’t demonstrate the necessary understanding in their response to the first part of the exercise, to directly illustrate to as many men as possible how uncomfortable they would find it were they put in the same position day to day.

Bravo YesItsADebate, I am in awe!

For anyone just signed in, OP's updates are on pages 7, 8, 9 and 10. Well worth reading.

YesItsADebate You are amazing and so brave. I would love to be part of a swim in or other protest, but having just been accepted onto a PGCE course, I'm worried about the impact being arrested for indecent exposure might have on my future career. However, if I were to swim in a rash vest I guess I would be safe, although less shocking?

On nights out, I already use male toilets (in the cubicles) sometimes if there is no queue- to be fair, no man has ever questioned me doing this, but in future if I do this I will claim to be self-ID as a man. Hopefully this will lead to some of them becoming aware of the issues if they aren't already. If I'm feeling very brave I might also try this at the rugby.

OP you are brilliant xx

Brilliant! Wish I'd thought of this.

I am in absolute awe of you OP! You rock!

I've asked MunchausensLovelyHorse if I can use #ManFriday and fundraise for button badges. More on the other thread.

You ate brilliant. I want to participate too!!