• A Canadian mum lodged a complaint after her ten year old daughter encountered a man in a bikini in the showering facilities of a swimming pool.
• The incident has sparked significant backlash, with celebrities voicing their opinions on the matter.
A swimming pool in Canada permitted a man in a bikini to use a female changing room and the shower facilities, alongside a ten year old girl. The incident occurred on July 5th at Commonwealth Place in Saanich, British Columbia, and has since sparked a torrent of condemnation.
JK Rowling and tennis star Martina Navratilova brought the case to light, after the child’s mum Angie Tyrrell revealed the response she received from staff members after complaining.
Tyrrell‘s daughter, who was 10 at the time, came across the man in the changing room’s shower – describing him as muscular with a ‘hairy’ chest and back. She further explained how the man had been wearing a child’s bikini – complete with sparkles, tiaras, and frills resembling a Disney princess.
When Tyrrell told a staff member at reception about what had happened, her complaint was brushed off, she explained. The mangers did not perceive the situation to be an issue. They eventually penned a response to Tyrell after she lodged a complaint again.
'While the District of Saanich welcomes and celebrates diversity, and we encourage visitors to our Recreation Facilities to use the restroom or changing room with which they identify and where they feel most safe,' pool assistant manager Bree Dobler wrote to Tyrrell.
The manager continued in her response, suggesting how on Tyrrell’s ‘next visit’, she and her children could take advantage of one of the ‘universal or single stall washrooms or changing rooms for patrons with concerns for their own modesty’.
Tyrrell replied, emphasising how the incident had impacted her child:
'I don’t think it’s right that a man’s wish to "feel most safe’ in women’s only spaces should be deemed a higher priority than the legitimate physical and emotional need for women and girls to actually be safe.
….’But why should all of the women - who the women’s change facility is for - have to leave to accommodate a man?'
The manager replied by stating how it was important that the Swimming Pool facilities were more inclusive. And how inclusivity was integral to the establishment’s ethos and a part of the law.
JK Rowling had the following to say on the matter in a tweet she posted on Sunday:
On the British Columbia province’s website, the Canadian government states:
‘Trans people must be recognized and treated as the gender they live in and prefer to express’.
