Are Tower Hamlets leisure services trans inclusive?
I’ve recently heard from the Leisure Services team about how the council is ensuring its leisure facilities are trans inclusive. This enquiry was submitted after the Supreme Court backed the biological definition of a person’s gender.
The ruling had implications for the management of single-sex spaces and the managers of these spaces may need consider biological sex when determining who can access them.
I was concerned about the potential impact of this ruling on trans residents of Tower Hamlets who may feel excluded from accessing leisure facilities.
The team responded with the following:
“Be Well recognise and have a process in place for accommodating transgender users in our facilities, but as you can appreciate it is a delicate subject and we welcome any further training other than what we already provide to our staff through various means and industry guidance.
Everyone is treated with respect and where there are challenges due to specific session and cultural beliefs, we speak directly to the user to find the most suitable option. We have accessible changing rooms at our facilities for use when there are challenges, as the majority of our centres due to age and design only have single sex changing areas.
I am more than welcome to sit with you and discuss the subject further, currently we have not changed our procedures after the supreme court ruling, as we are waiting for guidance relating to the industry as a whole, In the meantime, we advise our leisure facilities to manage situations on an individual basis, showing sensitivity and understanding to ensure that all customers are treated with dignity and respect.“
I was pleased to see that the team emphasises on treating everyone with dignity and respect and approaching issues on a case-by-case basis. However I am disappointed that trans users might have to use ‘special’ facilities like accessible changing rooms. I believe we could be more inclusive in the design of leisure facilities.
I will be assessing future refurbishments of leisure facilities to push for improvements which would make these spaces become truly trans inclusive – i.e. accessible to all people, regardless of their gender.
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