(Youth) Hostels

[FlabbergastedAgain25]

I've been using hostels and bunkhouses for 40-50 years, and based upon completing a feedback questionnaire and the request to complete 3 additional EDI questions I have just discovered that YHA (England and Wales) now ask about your gender identity...and when questioned about the situation they state that beds in dorms are based on gender identity not sex. I can't see where this is explicitly stated in their website.

Apparently they've responded to the EHRC consultation and are awaiting clarification before changing their current approach...

Have I been naive to not have realised female on their booking link does not mean biologically female?

My daughter has just been staying in a hostel with a group, for an activity she is involved in. She doesn't know everyone in the group. Interestingly the room she was in was all female, which included one transman (biologically female). Not sure if it was their choice to stay in female room or if it was the hostel's policy. I can't find anything on their website. Thought it was interesting though. (Also that DD immediately identified them as female and told me, even though she is always very TWAW etc!)

I was assaulted by a transwoman in a women's dorm at a YHA youth hostel about 25 years ago. The policy then was single sex, and (as I was told after the assault) for transwomen to be offered a private room. This transwoman ignored that and went to bed in a women's dorm. It was a quiet night and when I went to bed at about midnight it was just the 2 of us. I put the light on and quickly got into my night clothes. I had no idea that I was sharing the room with a man. The transwoman was incensed that the light was on, jumped out of bed and punched me. It was an incredibly strong punch, which left a big bruise for days afterwards. He then grabbed all my stuff and threw it into the corridor. I had to knock on the door of the manager's private accommodation and he moved me to a different dorm. The police were involved but presumably didn't prosecute for the assault as I wasn't asked to make a formal statement. However, they informed me (probably weren't supposed to) that the transwoman was on a cycling trip with a lot of dirty (yuck) sex toys in his luggage and had been apprehended after flashing at a young girl in a public toilet. The next weekend I came across the same transwoman in the female only dorm I has been assigned to at my next youth hostel, despite the fact that (I was told) the YHA had banned him.
This story is hard for me to believe, so I don't expect everyone who reads it here to believe it. It's true though.

oh gosh namechanged, that is awful. I'm so sorry you had to suffer that. And seeing him again in a second hostel. That is utterly dreadful. I'm so sorry.

I complained at the 2nd hostel, and didn't have to share with him (I don't think he was allowed to stay), but he was relentless, even after his issues with the police (no idea whether he was prosecuted for what he did in the women's toilets) and being banned. Just carried on regardless. In those days it was rare to see a man crossdressing and it didn't cross your mind. He just came across as a very odd-looking middle-aged woman.