Trans woman who blasted hotel spa for not giving her a key to female changing rooms sparks furious row with critics including Sharron Davies – and demands worker who ‘assumed’ she would use unisex facilities is sent for gender sensitivity training
- Anne Coombes alleged staff had ‘assumed’ she wanted unisex changing rooms
A trans woman who blasted has blasted a hotel spa for not giving her a key to a female changing room has spared a furious row with critics including Sharron Davies.
Anne Coombes, 65, vented on Twitter that her day was ‘spoilt’ after finding she was unable to get her locker key to work in the female changing room of the four-star Mercure Hotel in Sheffield.
She alleged that a member of staff had ‘assumed’ that she wanted to use the unisex changing facilities and has since demanded that the worker is sent for gender sensitivity training.
Furious at being treated ‘as if I am not a woman’, she tweeted: ‘I am so f*****g angry. I’m at the Mercure Hotel in Sheffield and I fancied using the swimming pool. I couldn’t get my locker key to work on the ladies.
‘Turns out the assistant had “assumed” I wanted the unisex changing room. With me dressed like this’, sharing a picture of her in a blue skirt and top on Sunday.
She added: ‘This is the first time anyone IRL (in real life) has treated me as if I am not a woman… decent people accept the rule of self identity. If in doubt then find a polite way to ask, don’t assume’.
But Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, who is campaigning to keep biological men out of women’s sports, said: ‘You’re male, use the changing room with other males or at the very least the unisex changing room! Deciding you wanting to change where you want to change does NOT trump women & girls rights. Ps I don’t know a single female that would subject that level of discomfort on others’.
Anne Coombes, 65, vented on Twitter after she was unable to get her locker key to work in the female changing room of the four-star Mercure Hotel in Sheffield
A trans woman has blasted a hotel who asked if she wanted to use the unisex changing rooms when she arrived to use the swimming pool, claiming the experience ‘spoilt her day’
Twitter user Anne Coombes vented on social media after she was unable to get her locker key to work in the female changing room of the Mercure Hotel in Sheffield
Sharron Davies sided with the hotel
Her tweets went viral and the following day she said: ‘I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have gone out of their way to state their concern and offer their support whether virtual or real. Thank you to each and everyone of you, I value your standing up as an ally.
‘And to all those people who weren’t on my side, I’m sorry but I will continue to exist, I am not going away. It doesn’t matter how much you lie about me I will still be here when you have run out of things to say’.
The response to her tweets have been mixed. One ally said: ‘Sorry to hear this has happened to you Anne and also sorry for the abuse you have had to put up with. Standing with you’.
READ MORE: Teenage boy ‘is arrested over claims schoolgirls were sexually assaulted in gender-neutral toilets at their Essex secondary’
But one critic said: ‘Why couldn’t you use the unisex changing room if you know you make some women uncomfortable? How hard is that?’
It comes as women’s rights campaigners, including author JK Rowling, desperately try to stop public bodies and businesses replacing separate male and female toilets with gender neutral ones which are being installed to be more welcoming to trans people.
From the National Trust to UK theatres and even the Houses of Parliament, proposals to install gender neutral toilets have been blasted as woke and dangerous.
In May, parents at Walsall Academy, near Wolverhampton, were left fearful that new gender neutral toilets would leave 11-year-olds sharing lavatories with 18-year-olds of the opposite gender.
There were reports of pupils recording each other in the toilets, while teenage girls were refusing to drink water because they were forced to wait until they were back home before relieving themselves.
Meanwhile late last month, The Telegraph reported that a teenage boy was reportedly arrested over allegations that female pupils were sexually assaulted in the gender-neutral toilets at another secondary school in Essex.
In response, JK Rowling has warned that gender neutral toilets are sacrificing girlks’ ‘safety, privacy and dignity’.
Her views on gender neutral toilets are backed by former Olympic rower Sharron Davies who replied to the trans woman’s tweet about her treatment at the Mercure Hotel by telling her ‘You’re male’.
It comes as women’s rights campaigners, including author JK Rowling, desperately try to stop public bodies and businesses replacing separate male and female toilets with gender neutral ones in an attempt to be more welcoming to trans people. (File image)
Davies added: ‘…use the changing room with other males or at the very least the unisex changing room!
‘Deciding you wanting to change where you want to change does NOT trump women & girls rights. Ps I don’t know a single female that would subject that level of discomfort on others.’
The trans woman replied: ‘Sharron you know nothing about me, and all you know about the incident is what i have revealed. Don’t presume to know things about me with no evidence. It shows an arrogance which is not becoming.’
TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer also weighed in, tweeting: ‘Yeah, sure, what all women and girls are looking for when they’re naked in a changing room is a big angry man who demands to be in there with them because he’s dressed as a woman. Uh huh.’
Accor, the company which owns Mercure, has been approached for comment by MailOnline.
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