virgin active changing room policy

[roarrfeckingroar]

Does anyone know Virgin Active's policy for changing rooms? There was a "woman" displaying male genitals while changing in the women's this morning. Women's, not family. I'll be honest, I didn't feel comfortable getting undressed. Before I'm accused of staring, it was hard to miss as the person was right where you come out of the showers.

VA aren't going to care are they?

That's grim. I'd report it as flashing personally.
No place for the naked penis in women's spaces.

Since I'm not Laurie Penny I'm not going to tell you not to stare at male genitals in a female changing room.

It's appalling, OP. Please report it and don't let anyone fob you off with the penis person having girly feelz, so it's all A-ok. It is not.

I would have reported it right away I think. They may struggle to do anything after the even unless they can find him entering the room on a camera.

Ask.
Then vote with your feet.

Am I so old fashioned to think that someone with male genitals is not a woman?

Get this on social media and tag it

They’ll care if all their female (as in those of us who are not penis-havers) customers stop paying membership fees because they don’t want to encounter any more penises belonging to any of the 58 genders in the women’s changing room.

Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 indecent exposure is an offence where someone intentionally exposes their genitals with the intention of being seen and causing alarm or distress.

This.

Report it to reception and to the police. Put it on Twitter. Women need to know if they're paying to be flashed at.

Wouldn't you have to prove that intention?

If a person displays male genitalia in a space whether nudity is permitted/usual and where male persons are allowed to be by company policy (because gender identity) it would, I think, be very difficult to prove.

Get on Twitter and tag in the actual gym.

In April this year a poster on Mumsnet said, on a thread about gyms' policies on gender identity and use of changing rooms,
"Or virgin active? They told me men could get their penis out in the changing rooms in front of my daughters when I asked them to clarify. And I did ask that specific question and they said yes."

OP, check you specific gym's policy by all means.

And BeverlyBrook's post gets deleted in 3, 2, 1...

Gyms in my area have a substantial discount for a 12 month membership paid in advance.

So you could join, discover there are naked males in your changing room and not be able to leave, as you've already paid in advance.

Their policy is incredibly woolly and seems up to the local manager to some extent. Like @BeverlyBrook my previous club manager said he’d never let a TW use the women’s changing rooms, but then he left and his replacement was much more vague. Wouldn’t supply any information on when it would be allowed, what training had been given etc. so I left and told them why.

AFAIK, only Bannatyne’s commit to single sex changing rooms.

This is what drives me mad.

If it’s in a park most people would struggle to justify indecent exposure but allowing any man into women’s changing rooms allows doubt to be exploited.

And now people say “oh, I didn’t think that would happen.” 🙄

I think the alarm or distress is on the say-so of the alarmed or distressed person.

There was a case 13 years ago where a man who left atheist cartoons in an airport prayer room was convicted of religiously aggravated "intentional harassment, alarm or distress". He denied that the materials were either offensive or intended to cause offence, but the chaplain who reported him specifically said it caused her "alarm and distress".

The jury (who all swore on the bible) took just 15 minutes to rule that he had left the religious offence material "with the intention of causing alarm or distress". The judge told him he deserved a prison sentence. This was suspended once it had the desired effect (of causing him alarm and distress!).

Genuine question: could someone please tell me why BeverlyBrook's post was deleted. It was not offensive!

Is it just the acronym that's banned?

Which acronym?

(Sorry to be dim)

Airport code for Malaga.

Personally I would complain. The more people who highlight it the better. If the signage doesn’t give an explanation that changing areas are unisex then the club is misleading you. What happens next week when a child comes face to face with this problem. Obviously I don’t know the set up of the gym but if there are alternatives why aren’t they being used. At the very least did the room have stalls that the person could have used? We are all led to believe that a TW is so dysphoric the very idea of having a male body is crippling but this person seems perfectly okay with their genitals on display. It’s all very wrong.

We need to return the position of a man who deliberately exposes his penis (regardless of what he's wearing or claiming to be) in a space reserved for women and girls is seen as a predator. All the statistics show that flashing is a gateway crime to more serious sexual offences. Even the police are being forced back to that position after the numerous disasters (including Wayne Couzens)

Report, report, report. Let the Stonewall captured police start investigating these creeps and have to defend any lack of action. I'd put money on it that a hard drive check on the men who do this will provide all the evidence needed to out them as sex offenders.