Not sure if this was posted on FWR, but came across a number of online posts about. There was a counter protest organised by Uninson.
We were in Southwark protesting against the council’s unlawful policy and the suspension of Miranda Newsom from her gym for complaining about a man in a women’s changing room. Miranda Newsom is an ordinary woman. Like most women, she wants to be able to change with dignity and privacy. She does not expect to have to share this space with a man. This is not a difficult thing to ask for. The trade union Unison is holding a counter-protest outside the leisure centre. Women who have turned up to support Miranda — and to defend their own sex-based rights — are facing further intimidation. If Southwark wants to be the test case to try to overturn the Supreme Court judgment, we will see them in court.
Sex Matters
Short video clip https://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/viral/no-men-in-female-changing-rooms-demonstration-in-london-uk/vi-AA1TXAX4
We need to talk about @unisontheunion
The biggest Union in the country, with 1.3 million members - 70% of whom are women - yesterday sent a gang of, mainly, men to noisily counter-protest an action organised by WRN-member MirandaNewsom
Miranda, you may recall, has been banned from Southwark Council leisure centres for having the temerity to call out the unlawful presence of a male in the female changing rooms. WRN members were there to support Miranda in calling out the policy and her ban for speaking out. Unison, in its haste to protect the rights of males to access women’s single-sex spaces, appears to have overlooked at least two facts:
1) Women’s rights to single-sex spaces are protected in law. When Unison members and assorted rabble-rousers turn up claiming to ‘protect the dolls’ they are telling us they don’t give a flying fig about their female members’ legal right to single-sex changing rooms / toilets in the workplace. Good luck to any female Unison members who need help fighting that one. The union won’t be on your side.
2) Southwark Unison branch @southwarkunison stated they were there to support their leisure centre staff members. No. Supporting low-paid, often young, staff would look like this:
- Realising that Southwark’s policy of allowing males into changing rooms based on how ‘feminine’ they look puts frontline staff in danger of confrontation with customers.
- A trade union worthy of the name would be lobbying the employer for a legally watertight policy so that frontline staff don’t need to make on-the-spot decisions on which males should be allowed to break the law and enter spaces where women and girls are getting undressed, based on how they look.
- No males should be in female spaces. It’s the law. Leisure centre staff are picking up the pieces of a policy that is poorly written and unlawful. The union should be working to sort that out.
Women's Rights Network