A consultation has been launched on transgender swimmers’ access to Hampstead Heath ponds, which could result in them being banned from using the pools for the gender they identify as.
The Kenwood Ladies’ and Highgate Men’s ponds are gender-segregated, with trans people currently able to swim in whichever they feel most appropriate, or use the heath’s mixed-gender pond instead.
The consultation, by the City of London Corporation (CLC), is now presenting six options for gender inclusivity in the historic institution, one of which would ban trans people from using their preferred ponds.
It comes amid a battle between groups who swim in the natural pools, with a protest in 2018 in the men’s pond by women wearing fake moustaches and beards to draw attention to the organisation’s refusal to ban trans women from the ladies’ pond.
While this was unsuccessful, the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association (KLPA) rejecting a motion among its 200 members last year that “only those born female in sex can use the pond”, pressure has since mounted after the supreme court ruled earlier this year that trans women were not legally defined as women.
The consultation appears to have come in response to threatened legal action by the campaign group Sex Matters.
The organisation’s chief executive, Maya Forstater, said the association needed to change the rules after the supreme court ruling. She said: “Women who choose to swim at the ladies’ pond rather than the mixed pond are choosing a female-only environment for a variety of personal reasons, including privacy and dignity. Allowing men with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment to enter means that it is no longer a female-only environment.”
Trans people called the campaigners “cruel and judgemental” and said they had been using the space for decades with no issues.
On social media, they also argued that it was not always easy to tell what gender someone had been assigned at birth and that the measures could result in a transgender man, who had undergone gender-affirming surgery and was taking testosterone, using facilities for women.
They said it could create complications where people were being challenged on their eligibility to use the space based on physical characteristics such as their height or the shape of their jaw.
Announcing the consultation Chris Hayward, the chair of policy at the CLC, said: “We recognise the sensitivity surrounding this issue. Our consultation will help ensure that everyone’s voice is heard, and that decisions are made in a fair, respectful and transparent way, in line with the law.
“While the consultation will be an important source of insight, it is not the only factor. The views we receive will sit alongside our wider responsibilities – including meeting legal requirements, assessing equality impacts, ensuring safeguarding, and considering how any decisions could be implemented in practice.”
