A Trans Woman Was Asked To Leave The Women's Changing Room At A PureGym

[OnTheDarkSideOfTheSpoon]

A Trans Woman Was Asked To Leave The Women's Changing Room At A PureGym

Exclusive: The woman was told that "no men are allowed" in the women's changing room after gym staff received a complaint from another member.

www.buzzfeed.com/laurasilver/puregym-trans-woman-changing-room

How long until the backlash forces a change in policy do you think?

"She hoped that her experience would help gym staff and fellow members to understand what it's like to use a gym as a trans person.

“I would want people to realise there is that gap, and you need that training to take into consideration our experiences,” she said."

There you go .. we just all need to be re-educated.

Hah! No Sarah it is you who needs to be educated about women and their feelings.

I was in a heated discussion about this sort of thing the other day with a man who was claiming that women's scarcely concealed and completely irrational misandry was suddenly being given full licence in this debate and when applied to transwomen it becomes transphobia. I said it's not irrational to be wary of the male body: women are traditionally prey. But apparently, being wary of the unknown male body is the equivalent of assuming all foreigners are terrorists. If someone says they're a woman you have to take their word for it, apparently. Or else you are a T*.

It reminds me of that old conundrum of the indiscernible line between: Oh, he just put his hand on your knee, you're making a fuss about nothing and Wait, he put his hand on your knee, why didn't you scream?

I know the layout of each gym is different but the Pure I'm a member of has a door to the right to get into the women's changing rooms, a door to the left for the mens, and 3 doors straight ahead which are individual accessible cubicles for anyone

Lots of people who are too lazy to walk down the corridor to the main changing rooms use the individual ones (or maybe they are all trans and I've just been assuming they are lazy)

So if the branch 'Sarah' belongs to has a similar layout, this really is just about making a point to the press

Woman the only kind

Thanks for the link have emailed my support

Happened at my sports club- communal changing and showers. Management backed the TW, not the very upset naked woman alone in the shower when the TW walked in her.

Shame we don't know the location of the gym as it would encourage women of the cunty variety to join up if our rights are being protected there.

In the words of Janice Turner

"It is like (locking) a fox in a henhouse"

These men insist on using the women's room at best because of the need for validation of egotistical magical thinking and at worst because of abuse of power and control.

Make no mistake, the feelings and expectations of women are considered irrelevant in this situation, you know the situation created by infiltration of our lives.

I can't honestly see private gyms following anything other than the stance PureGym have here, and good for them.
They're there to make money and women will leave in their droves if the demands of transwomen are allowed to trump the privacy and dignity of women and girls.

apparently, being wary of the unknown male body is the equivalent of assuming all foreigners are terrorists.

The problem with this analogy is that it ignores the huge structural power imbalances in both situations (weighted against both women and foreigners).

Pure Gym's policy is to allow self ID when I contacted them to see if I could use the men's as part of my manly Friday work out they said it was fine, I'm glad to see that in practice they are protecting women by asking male bodied individuals to use a different changing room.

When they are naked what makes them a TW other than how they identify?
If someone walks into the changing room and sees a male bodied person stood there in the nip how are they to know that that person in a transwoman?

stillathing
"apparently, being wary of the unknown male body is the equivalent of assuming all foreigners are terrorists."

The problem with this analogy is that it ignores the huge structural power imbalances in both situations (weighted against both women and foreigners).

Absolutely agree! (One of many reasons I loathe Susie Green's disgusting and ass-backwards 'white women excluding black women' analogy as well.) I resisted the temptation to point out to this man that most terrorists were men anyway as that would only have served to fuel his perception of misandry.

That's the thing Chester, it's opening the door to every pervert/voyeur/paedo/rapist too.

How do you distinguish between someone who self IDs and a rapist?

Would like to if this was at my branch so i could pop into the office and say thanks

Actually as a disabled gym goer, why should they have my space, possibly the only accessible one I can use?

I shall email PureGym to congratulate them on their safe guarding of women, but also point this out. People who don't want to use the changing room that matches their physical biology can campaign for a third gender neutral space and then we will all be happy, right?

So...we also need a separate TW and TM changing room.

If someone walks into the changing room and sees a male bodied person stood there in the nip how are they to know that that person in a transwoman?

And if I choose to use a single sex changing room, then I don't expect to see a penis there. Does not matter what the penis owner thinks of their gender. Still a penis.

They actively want to be in the room while women are getting undressed.

There was a separate gender neutral space available yet Sarah used the women's communal space when there were women present.

Sarah clearly has no idea what it feels like to be a woman. Or doesn't care because of her male entitlement.

If this continues I can see a move to a women’s only gyms.

I go to one at the moment, men have arrived & asked to join but sent on their way. The owners rationale is that women have different bodies & need to train in different ways to men.

No trans women yet. It will be interesting to see what happens if one asks to join.

PureGym is not accepting emails on the link above, btw. Let's hope they haven't been deluged with hatred for safeguarding women and girls.

Someone here made the suggestion of identifying as male and using the male changing room, as the men in there at least hadn't intentionally violated your boundaries, so were safer.

The obvious problem with this is that you still don't get to have privacy.

So the thought occurred to me: What would happen, hypothetically, if you could get all the women to declare that after seeing the transwoman, they finally came to terms with their own transness and feel male.

Then go to the men's changing room, explain the situation, tell them those transmen will now all use the men's changing room, but perhaps the men feel more like women today and would like to use the women's changing room?

What would the transwoman say? Transactivists have made it quite clear that wearing a dress is not a requirement for transwomanhood anymore. Being gender fluid is considered valid.

I'd like to see their face.

Sarah was even offered the use of a gender neutral, accessible changing room but refused it. If all Sarah wanted was to use the gym, then why wasn't this an acceptable compromise?

See this is where the whole thing falls down for me. I'd rather have a private space, all things being equal. So if I as offered a private space, I would use it. But Sarah wants access to a room of naked women.

If this continues I can see a move to a women’s only gyms

If prisons and hospitals see transwomen as women and separate according to gender, I don't think it would take long for a women's gym to stop being single sex because someone wanted validation and the gym couldn't find a way to say no.