Looking for a gym with female-only changing rooms by sex: a journey

[2021x]

I am trying to find a gym in my city (not UK) that excludes males from the female showering and changing rooms.

I was in my gym and there was a man in the changing room- no attempt to be female other than a sports-bra- and since then I was just stressed everytime I went.

I have emailed a gym who say they are trans-inclusive on a case by case basis and said I should use the accessiblity changing room if I am uncomfortable.

I have also put up a post on Reddit in the local page - that got auto-moderated, and then the same post on the national page that is going through normal moderation.

My post says this

I am looking for XXXX gyms that have female‑only changing and shower areas that are restricted by sex, not self‑identified gender.

I’m comfortable sharing these spaces with other females, but I’m not comfortable changing or showering in areas where males may be present.

If you know of any gyms in XXXX please sent me a direct message.

Wish me luck.

The research uses police reporting as evidence.

But the law in the uk has not changed. Men were never allowed legally in female spaces.

I can only read the absract.

There is no detail in there about over how long the data was collected for, where it was collected i.e. geographical location. There is no mention of inclusivity and exclusitity criteria. I note that the author is a lawyer whose business is tied to this area, and the research happened before the pandemic and the trans-explosion happened.

Based on that I can reject this research as something that can be used to predict patterns of behaviour of trans-women in female bathrooms in 2026.

For me to believe that trans women do not pose any threat to females I woudl need the research to show at the very least.

• No bias from the authors
• Post pandemic compared to pre-pandemic numbers
• Several different geographcical locations to see if the results stand up in places other than California and Colorado and Seattle.

Even if you could demonstrate to me that trans-women being permitted in toilets with women did not pose and increase threat towards women, it still doesn't address my issue which is I only want to use gyms with changing and showering faciliies with only females present.

"This study was undertaken to help determine if homosexuals and bisexuals are more or less criminal and/or violent than heterosexuals. Based upon samples of 197 male and 279 female college students, Pearson correlations revealed several significant, but weak, relationships between sexual orientation and most forms of self-reported criminal and/or violent behavior patterns. Among males, the data generally suggested that heterosexuals were more criminal and violent than homosexuals (except in the case of drug offenses), but that bisexuals were more criminal and violent than heterosexuals. Among females, lesbians (including only a few females with exclusively homosexual preferences) were generally more criminal and violent than heterosexuals, although they were still less so than males (except for homosexual males). Results suggest that some important differences may exist among both sexes regarding relationships between sexual orientations and criminal/violent behavior.
A different pattern of findings emerged for the relationship between sexual minority status and crime among males. Gay males appear to display lower levels of physical aggression and criminal behavior as compared to heterosexual males (Ellis et al., 1990; Pinhey & Brown, 2005; Sergeant et al., 2006). Furthermore, sexual minority boys, in contrast to sexual minority girls, did not appear to be overrepresented in the juvenile justice system (Jonnson et al., 2019). Though limited, at least some early evidence suggested that bisexual males tended to report more involvement in violence and crime than heterosexual males (Ellis et al., 1990)."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/019188699090146I?via%3Dihub

Good luck OP. I'm so glad my large chain gym in the UK explicitly states their changing room usage is divided by sex. I wish it was this simple for all women

No. The equality act that was in place from 2010 till 2025 permitted it. In any case, where the laws that changed are irrelevant to the research if no increased reporting was found.

@EmilyinEverton That research is incredibly poor. Please don't flood the thread

Are you always so nasty? You may be very elderly one day.

Your information is incorrect.

The Supreme Court rules that it was always the intention in the EA that females where a separate class of protected people from Transwomen.

It was permitted illegally.

Good luck OP. And please ignore Emily.

Where are your stats for that? Does the criminal justice system record sexual orientation? I would be VERY interested to see the supporting evidence for this statement.

Thanks @roseyposey

I am interested in the @EmilyinEverton reasoning. However it is noted that there is limited understanding of the law and the realitiy of being a woman.

For example the nitpitcking about the evidence is interesting, but there is still no response regarding my point about males - regardless of how they identify- are still significantly stronger than women to the point where women cannot defend themselves if attacked by any male over the age of 14.

OP was concerned about trans women in changing rooms due to safety. You were concerned about seeing ugly old women in the changing room. I was pointing out that the existing evidence shows that trans women were equally likely to be sexual offenders as any man. There is no evidence yet to suggest otherwise.

Your point of view is the type you might expect from a man in a changing room who creepily assesses women's bodies.

I know you were trying to make a point, but you missed the point. It isn't about how people look.

The equality act is still in place.
The Supreme Court confirmed in 2025 that the terms “woman” and “man” in the act refer to biology rather than identity.
The law has not changed.

I suggest you educate yourself on that topic (go and read the judgement, it’s not hard to find) and also educate yourself on crime stats while you are at it. Otherwise you are wasting everyone’s time with nonsense that’s simply not true.

Here are the details.

file:///Users/ang/Downloads/Gender%20Identity%20Nondiscrimination%20Laws%20in%20Public%20Accommodations_%20a%20Review%20of%20Evidence%20Regarding%20Safety%20and%20Privacy%20in%20Public%20Restrooms,%20Locker%20Rooms,%20and%20Changing%20Rooms%20_%20SpringerLink.pdf

The point you are missing is the supreme court clarification wasn't till 2025 so until then it wasn't 'legal' to exclude transwomen.

I posted the research upthread.

Cant be accessed.

What do you think about the critique- do you think it would be good to have non-biased research on this topic?

What do you think of my request- do you think for these reasons

1. Males commit significantly higher rates of sexual violence towards females that females commit towards other females
2. Sexual violence pretty much exclusively occurs in private spaces even if those spaces are in public.
3. That if a female is attacked by a male they are unable to protect or defend themselves in the way that a male could.
4. Sexual crimes do not have to be physical the most common are voyerism and exposure. Women also do not have comparable levels of strength and speed to be able to catch, and obtain any recording equipment that can be used.
5. Women cannot tell by sight if a male is safe to be alone in a room with, and transwomen really stick out as males in female only spaces.

that my request is unreasonable in an area I will be showering and changing.

And your point of view is the type you might expect from women in a changing rooms who creepily assess women's bodies. But I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt in not being able to comprehend that a good many people don't appreciate strangers nudity in their faces particularly of the grotesque kind.

That you feel people should be forced to appreciate aesthetically unpleasing vistas is testimony to a kind of authoritarian mentality.

Thanks that's interesting, have bookmarked. I can definitely believe that gay men are less driven by machismo and so less prone to violence than straight men. Unfortunately it doesn't seem separate sex crimes. Not sure if they are included in 'violence' or 'other'. If you scroll down to the bar graphs. It show that lesbians (grey bar) are still significantly less likely than gay men (orange bar) to be charged with any kind of crime, including violent crime, unless I'm missing something. Though they are more likely to be charged than straight women. Anyway, what does gay men being less prone to violence that straight men have to do with trans women (many of whom are attracted to women) being allowed into women's changing rooms etc? This was the study I looked at btw, not the sciencedirect one.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02902-9#ref-CR47

no, the SC judgement confirmed. Men are not allowed in female spaces whatever they are wearing. Do keep up dear.

Good luck OP.
As we've seen in recent years, men wanting access to women and girls undressing are determined to deny women privacy. They'll use shame, dodgy data, personal attacks and invent fantastical scenarios. Despite the clarity that the SC judgment has given, they'll go on and on and on about why men must be given access to undressing women.
Very tedious.

Just for once, the TRA has chosen a particularly apposite name.

My apologies try this:
https://www.bostonindicators.org/article-pages/2018/november/transgender-public-accommodation

Your request is unreasonable in my view because as I showed different minority groups of men like homosexuals offend at different rates so its unfair to classify all men as potential sexual predators. Its like saying all muslims should be banned from migration because a particular group of them from a particular locality in Africa practice FGM.

Also anyone who understands anything about sexual violence is the only precondition a sexual predator needs is an isolated environment to commit abuse. IE they don't 'need' permission to conduct their heinous acts. So I suspect that's the reason why you won't see an increase in reporting if laws change because permission was never the ssue.

So how would women know which men are sexual predators? Surely the best solution is to keep all men out of female spaces.