Waterside Arts Centre Sale clearly ignoring Supreme Court

[SigrunGard]

i was at the Waterside last night with my partner. The Women’s was marked “women’s” but then written on the door in large letters was something to the effect of please feel free to use whichever facilities” match your gender identity or gender expression “. Mentioned it to my partner who said the same was on the door to the men’s ( he said someone asked a friend what that meant and the reply was apparently” some modern bollocks” - hard to argue!)

I rather feel I should email them and point out that this is not right- anyone got suggestions for wording that doesn’t just make me sound bigoted!?

thanks

Please clarify for us @littleBillie !

Do you mean "haven't" ?

Yes I do, thanks for pulling me up on a typo I feel much better now. And back to the doors…..🤣

Sorry, didn't mean to sound arsey. Just I have been complaining to the venue and didn't want to persist if it has actually been changed. I haven't been back to see and won't get chance for some time.

At work I got on my high horse about some HR training saying men can go in the women's toilets and if women complain they are bullies. Anyway they kept ignoring me, or passing me to another department. It had been going on maybe a couple of years. When the SC ruling came I emailed saying basically "I told you so, will you change it now?" Only for them to actually reply dead quickly this time and say they had already changed it, a couple of months earlier. But I hadn't kept checking the training to see. So in short, although the outcome was good, I don't want similar to happen with these doors and give them the chance to get smug while I look like a divvy.

The response that came today from stage 2 complaint is (cutting out waffle and preamble) the council

"maintain that the implications of the ruling are wide ranging and complex, and apply differently in a variety of contexts including the Council’s obligations as an employer and in the provision of services to the public.

For this reason, the Council will await the Government’s implementation of the updated Code of Practice as explained in the Stage 1 response, upon which expert legal advice may then be taken in conjunction with the Local Government Association. This will ensure that the Council’s review of practice and policy, together with the implementation of any change needed, will be properly informed, carefully planned and managed."

Then say if I'm still not happy I need to go to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman. Urgh.

It's like gaslighting by now, I start to wonder if I am missing something and it is actually more complex than just "make sure men don't go in the women's toilets, because that's the law." I even said if they want to have mixed sex toilets OK, but these don't fit the bill because....

It's like a parallel universe. I don't know how these people can have such brass neck. Sodding Labour most of the Council - honestly, what an utter dissapointment they are. i thought about trying my (Labour) MP but he just sends the crappest responses, so long after I emailed that I've forgotten by the time he replies, and with all the stock cut and paste phrases and claptrap you'd expect and answering nothing. He seems to have no views of his own. (No view of his own about surrogacy either, while i'm on one, that was stock responses too.)

Sorry for being a bit ranty I'm very pissed off and rather disillusioned.

It is gaslighting and if you need local voices to add to this there will be women in Trafford to write to council

The Brighton tribunal chat has given me some insight I think is relevant too - I hadn't really put two and two together on this. The "arts" stuff that gets commissioned is the stuff that ticks EDI boxes. I had wondered why it seemed to he bloody everywhere (looking at you too, Home in Manchester) but maybe the options for showing eg. a regular love story, where maybe they happen to be same sex but that's not really mentioned are limited because there aren't any. Or a dance show that's nothing to do with identity. And that how come we end up with The Snow Queen being a bloke for the Christmas show.

I had just assumed everyone involved was fully into the Woo, but maybe there aren't many alternative small films and shows to put on and it's all just self perpetuating. Probably someone on here will know, and I'd be very interested because every season I get the programmes and really want there to be things I fancy seeing because I enjoy going. And there just aren't, but there used to be.