Cross dress males to be allowed in women only gym sessions in Glasgow

[MrsSnippyPants]

Mentioned before, I know, but quite a punchy headline today
www.heraldscotland.com/news/17588777.cross-dress-males-to-be-allowed-in-women-only-gym-sessions-in-glasgow/?ref=twtrec

Timelady I think you are right - the more storeis like this the more the general public are going to realise that's what's happened in the past by stealth is now happening in plain sight, and that 'wait a minute, this does actually affect me at my women's only swimming session' at, say, Woodside.

and this - just leaves me gobsmacked. WTF???

"If anyone, at any time, feels uncomfortable when using our services, they should immediately contact a member of staff." The new policy will then be "sensitively" explained and you will be reported for Hate Crime.

Photographs tell the story don't they?

Which is why trans characters in telly and film are generally beautiful twenty-somethings or actual women and not hairy middle-aged AGPs.

Imagining some poor junior hack at the paper being told to report to the art department to have their photo taken to illustrate a story.

This is why print and digital media are so important; they can illustrate the story much more subtlety than TV. That hairy male bod in women's knickers speaks volumes. Uuuurgh.

Poor old Vic Valentine is desparartly reverting to the Gender reassignment definition in a useless attempt to stuff the cat in the bag. Meanwhile pictures of items stuffed in underwear take centre stage illustrating exactly what Vic Valentine has been pushing at us all for quite some time now.

This is absurd and so clearly dangerous. It's obviously men making these decisions who either don't give a shit about women's safety.

I now believe that many men would like to see women edged out of public life altogether, especially the non compliant ones.

Here's my thinking on this, please tell me where I'm wrong:

1. Glasgow Council through Glasgow Life is facilitating the sexual harassment of female service users.

Crossdressing is often an activity that is sexually motivated. Engaging in a sexual activity that involves others without their consent is sexual harassment. While crossdressing itself is not illegal, in this case it happens in circumstances where service users have the legal right to be protected from such conduct because they are accessing what are single-sex provisions.

By expressly allowing male crossdressers unlawful access to females in female-only provisions, Glasgow Council is facilitating sexual harassment.

1. Access to single-sex spaces and services is lawfully limited according to either biological sex only or legal and biological sex (as per the EqA). Glasgow Council is allowing males access to female only provisions who are legally and biologically male and therefore have no right to access them at all.

Glasgow Council are thereby discriminating against female people who have a legal right to privacy under the EqA.

1. Single-sex provisions are in fact an instance of discrimination on the basis on sex. The EqA sets out six specific exemptions that allow this. However, this discrimination is only lawful if all members of one sex are excluded from the opposite-sex provision.

There are two versions of this exclusion: either by biological sex which excludes all members of the opposite sex or by legal sex, which includes those members of the opposite sex who have a GRC and are therefore thought to share the same legal sex.

By excluding legal and biological males who do not crossdress or identify as trans from female-only provisions while including legal and biological males who do crossdress or identify as trans, Glasgow Council is therefore unlawfully discriminating against the former on the basis of their sex.

There is simply no legal mechanism whereby the former can be denied access while the latter are granted access when it comes to provisions segregated on the basis of sex because gender reassignment does not supersede sex where single-sex provisions are concerned.

1. Glasgow Council is potentially breaching the human rights of children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by denying female children female-only provisions and by specifically setting out a policy designed to treat their or their parents' complaints with contempt.

1. Glasgow Council is engaging in multiple instances of unlawful conduct, some of which specifically puts female service users users at risk of sexual assault and harassment and which furthermore specifically facilitates sexual harassment in the case of voyeurs, flashers and males who crossdress for sexual gratification.

Whatever liability insurance the council has is unlikely to be valid should an incident occur leading to a claim. That's because upholding domestic law is a condition for insurance to be valid.

Think you're bang on the money, Charlie.

Report in today's Times:

Cross-dresser rule for changing rooms ‘alarming’

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cross-dresser-rule-for-changing-rooms-alarming-wmf8h5jlk?shareToken=c3da07a3830be60f1ba5ae082b301e38

Maybe this is what will bring it home to people that the trans umbrella now cover the part-time fetishists too.

Another good article in the Herald

Talk of single-sex spaces being accessed on the basis of Self-ID shocked many of us, especially those with any knowledge or experience with sexual offenders – the safeguarding risks were obvious, right?

We raised our concerns only for them to be dismissed by advocates of the reform, proudly announcing that most services already operated on the basis of Self-ID; with Elected members, Charities, Local Authorities and other public bodies all confirming that they have indeed been changing their policies to permit this.

Do they not realise that they are publicly promoting the fact they have been changing these policies, in the dark, and in the process have utterly failed to meet the needs of women?

www.heraldscotland.com/news/17588791.susan-sinclair-female-rights-must-be-respected/

I wonder if Emma Thompson will jet in to protest?

So can I go to a male only club if I wear jeans and a fleece? Come on, thus us getting ludicrous. Fair enough if someone has long-standing gender dysmorphia and has taken steps to live as the opposite gender for a significant period - cross dressing isn't the same, you know you are make, you just like playing dress up!

I often wear ‘mens’ clothes. Oh dearie me, must book my prostate exam then eh?

I think it's also pertinent to say that Glasgow city council gyms serve some of the poorer areas and people of our city. Obviously people do access the gyms from any income bracket but they offer great discounts to people on lower incomes and provide some great facilities for a low price and are advertised as such. In addition, the council have many gyms therefore if they are hell bent on this potentially illegal policy they could isolate to one gym in accordance with the cross dressing numbers they feel they are championing.

CharlieParly you have not mentioned faith in your run down of where Glasgow Life have failed legally.

When I lived up there it was very Socialist. Who has taken over the council then?

Its an SNP led administration now.

Ahhh that explains a lot. When I was a child the SNP were the party that us kids would shout rude words at when they drove by in their campaign cars playing that bloody awful jingle.

Actually, Glasgow Life 'Glasgow Club' gyms are really feeling the competition from the new gyms springing up around the city - which are much cheaper. My own teens have abandoned GL and gone for the new local chain. £13 a month and the classes are all included too.

Just saying, GL in case you are reading. ( But you know this anyway)

You're right you'llhavehadyourtea. The new cheap gyms are great. I'm thinking mainly of the pools with their communal changing villages. For people who want to swim- they are quite a cheap option in combination with their classes.

Fair enough if someone has long-standing gender dysmorphia and has taken steps to live as the opposite gender for a significant period - cross dressing isn't the same

The problem for services is how to they distinguish between cross dressing and anything else?

What steps need to be taken, what's a significant period, how do you prove someone has gender dysphoria?

That they a nickname yet? Lawyers keen on nicknames in glasgow...

RedToothBrush yes, I have. Particularly bad oversight given that this might be the easiest to prove Glasgow Council wrong. So, here goes:

1. Glasgow Council is offering services to the public through Glasgow Life. They are therefore bound to fulfil the public sector equality duty under s149 of the EqA. They need to show in particular that they have considered how this policy change will affect other protected groups.

The groups in question are those who are protected on the basis of religion (this includes not only female members of conservative religions with stringent privacy rules, but also gender critical persons), race (those whose cultures have stringent privacy rules), disability and sex. Possibly also age if we discuss children separately.