When I complained about a man in the women’s changing room at my gym, I discovered that managers had given him permission to go in. I asked about men walking around naked in front of young girls. They had no answer.
I got banned from my gym after I complained about a man using the women’s changing facilities. The gym was breaking the law, not me. And yet I was the one who got punished.
When I first realised that there was a man using the space where women get undressed, I told the management, but they did nothing. I felt I had to approach the man myself even though I was scared. So the next time I saw him there, even though I felt nervous, I told him his presence makes women feel uncomfortable. He responded by telling me that he’s female on his passport. He took out his phone to film the interaction, suddenly adopting a high-pitched woman’s voice and calling for help, saying I was threatening him and he was terrified. He even called the police. It was ridiculous – I’m a 60-year-old woman and it wouldn’t occur to me to raise a fist at a man (who could easily knock me out).
After I complained, the gym suggested I should use the mixed-sex spaces or the disabled facilities, or even stop coming to the gym for a while. Then the whole thing turned into an investigation into my behaviour. Ultimately, they took his side and suspended my membership.
When I asked about its policy on single-sex spaces, a manager told me it involved a “visual assessment” to determine how “feminine” a man looks. One of the things they look for is long hair, she said. But men can have long hair, I responded. I asked what would happen if he had been naked and there had been a 12-year-old girl in there too. She appeared alarmed and wanted to know if the man had been naked. I said No, but what if he had been? It’s a changing room, after all. She had no answer.