UK presenter drops gym after finding man in female changing rooms

UK TV presenter Michelle Dewberry has revealed that she cancelled her Virgin Active UK membership after learning about the gym’s changing rooms policy.

Dewberry said she had approached the gym to get clarity about its changing rooms policy after she had “encountered a man in the female changing rooms”. 

In a response to her enquiry the gym said: “The changing rooms are split between female and male with children attending up to the age of eight years old of a different gender.

“For the female changing rooms in particular this would cover females of all ages, boys up to the age of eight years old, transgender females and nonbinary members.”

This prompted Dewberry to cancel her membership. She said she did not agree with the policy, specifically the “nonbinary” part.

“How has it become commonplace for adult males to now be allowed into our single-sex changing rooms? How come us females were never consulted about this? Whatever happened to our right to a single-sex changing space?

“If you are among the minority of women who are comfortable sharing your single-sex changing room with adult males, I completely respect that. But what about the majority of us who aren’t?”

She said the policy compromised women’s privacy and safety which made her feel uncomfortable.

“This made me really uncomfortable because what they are telling me as a member is that the single-sex female changing room is nothing of the sort.

“When you start getting into the category of nonbinary members can enter the female changing rooms, you’ve lost me because now this is not a safe single-sex space. This is a space where any member including men can go into the changing room and tell me he’s a nonbinary person. I’m not comfortable with that.”

Last year, Virgin Active SA caused an uproar on X after announcing its decision to allow trans individuals who have transitioned to use changing rooms that align with their gender. After the backlash, the gym deactivated its X account.

TimesLIVE