Ex-Dragons’ Den star to remove non-binary option from gym app
Duncan Bannatyne has said he will remove a non-binary gender option from his gym chain app. (Getty Images)
Duncan Bannatyne has said he will remove a non-binary gender option from his gym chain app. (Getty Images)
Duncan Bannatyne has said he will remove the non-binary gender option from his gym chain app “as soon as possible”.
The former BBC Dragons’ Den investor, who owns a chain of UK health clubs, was asked on X/Twitter by the director of the gender-critical group Women’s Rights Network, Mary Howden, why the new app “asks for gender rather than sex” and includes three options: male, female and non-binary.
“As you know and have supported, sex differences matter in fitness,” she said, drawing on his previous comments about the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on the legal definition of a woman, and his previously expressed views about trans women using women’s spaces.
“The non-binary option will be removed asap,” he replied. “Thank you for pointing this out to me.”
The non binary option will be removed asap. Thank you for pointing this out to me https://t.co/3UTLq6zUUW
— Duncan Bannatyne (@DuncanBannatyne) August 20, 2025
In April, the Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act excludes trans women, but the judges pointed out that transgender people are still legally protected from discrimination.
Following the ruling, Bannatyne shared gender-critical posts and urged “all gym owners [to] join me now in agreeing that single-sex spaces for women means biological women”.
Posting on X, he went on to say: “No gym should ever allow men into women’s changing rooms.” In a separate post, he dubbed the court verdict a “great, well-deserved victory”.
Last year, Bannatyne made it clear that the changing rooms in his clubs are single sex, and Virgin Active recently announced that trans people will be excluded from locker-rooms and toilets that correspond with their gender identity in its gyms.
London-based women’s only gym The Girls Spot also made a recent U-turn in not allowing transgender women to become members.
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