Gender-critical group ‘plan legal action’ over Hampstead Heath Ladies’ Pond trans policy

Gender-critical campaign group Sex Matters has vowed to take legal action against the corporation that runs the ladies’ pond on London beauty spot Hampstead Heath because they allow trans bathers to enter despite the Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender.

Kenwood ladies’ pond is run by the City of London Corporation (CoLC) and has always welcomed transgender women, to the annoyance of anti-trans campaigners.

In 2019, the CoLC formally acknowledged trans people’s right to swim at the pond through a policy ensuring their “public services do not discriminate against trans people” and everyone was “fully respected, and equality and basic human rights upheld”. This was reaffirmed five years later when members of the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association (KLPA) voted to reject a change that would have redefined the word “woman” to mean “only those born female in sex”.

Last month, Sex Matters wrote to the CoLC warning that if the policy was not changed, to make the pond single-sex only, the group would begin legal action “over its failure to take heed of the Supreme Court’s judgement”.

In April, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of the words “sex” and “woman” in the 2010 Equality Act referred to “biological sex” and “biological women” only, specifically excluding trans people.

In response, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published interim guidance recommending that access to single-sex spaces should be based on biology, meaning a transgender woman would not be allowed to use a female toilet and a trans man could not enter a male one.

The guidance went on to say that in “some circumstances” trans women should also be banned from the men’s facilities and transgender men from women’s. This was later clarified to mean that when a trans woman or trans man presented in an obviously feminine or masculine way, “reasonable objection might be taken” to their presence in a single-sex facility.

Following the court verdict, the CoLC said a self-ID regulation would “remain in place” while legal advice was sought, and pointed out that “the ladies’ pond was not a single-sex facility… precisely because trans women are permitted to access the swimming facilities” and therefore the “corporation recognises, following the Supreme Court’s ruling, that it is not providing single-sex facilities as defined within the [Equality Act]”.

The CoLC went on to say the Supreme Court’s understanding of “woman” and “man” as “biological” terms were not the same as how they saw them, and such terms “must be read in light of the access arrangements in place at the ladies’ pond, pursuant to which both trans women and biological women have been permitted to access the pond for many years”.

The CoLC’s gender-identity policy outlines that “the City Corporation recognises that gender identity is complex and varied (e.g. some people identify as genderfluid)” and this view is reflected in their approach to providing services.

“The Equality Act requires that people with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment are not discriminated against in the provision of single-sex services and are able to access services aligning with their gender identity,” it states.

In a note published on its website on 30 June, the CoLC said they would be “reviewing their access policies, including those at Hampstead Heath’s bathing ponds” following the Supreme Court ruling, adding that they “must consider the impact of current and potential future arrangements on all users, while ensuring we meet our legal duties and provide appropriate access, [and] our priority remains to provide a safe and respectful environment for everyone”.

On Sunday (13 July), the Sex Matters website accused the CoLC of “trying out an extraordinary manoeuvre”. The group’s founder, Maya Forstater, told The Times it was “nothing more than linguistic trickery”.

She went on to say: “The corporation claims that, because it chooses to define “women” and “men” according not to biological sex but to who wants to be referred to as ‘she’ or ‘he’, the Supreme Court judgement doesn’t apply.

“Neither Hampstead Heath nor the City of London Corporation are sovereign entities that get to make their own laws.

‘We will be taking our next steps in August and think this case will be very significant in testing what can only be described as creative interpretations of equality law following the Supreme Court judgement.”

KLPA Members have said: “According to the lifeguards, trans women have been swimming there for many years without incident”, the Mail Online reported.

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