The Theft of the McIver Ladies Baths

A century-old women-only swimming pool in Australia has been bullied into opening its doors to males.

The Spectator Australia @SpectatorOz

Get with it, Grandma! If men who think they're mermaids want to frolic at the famous century-old McIver’s Ladies Baths at Coogee, surely it's their right? #auspol #Coogee #transsexual

bit.lyNo penises in the pool? Puh-lease! | The Spectator AustraliaFor almost one hundred years, Sydney women have been able to bathe at Coogee’s ladies-only pool, free from the prying eyes of pervy men. But much has changed since the McIver’s Ladies Baths –…

The McIver Ladies Baths is in the beautiful Sydney suburb of Coogee. It was built in 1886 and has been for the exclusive use of women and children ever since. Screened from view by its cliff-foot location, the pool provides the perfect place for women to swim and sunbathe in peace and safety, free from male interest and male eyes.

It is the last remaining female-only seawater pool in Australia. Or at least it was.

Recently the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Swimming Association (R&CLSA), which manages the pool, decided that access would be extended to (genuine) transwomen, ie those who’ve undergone sex-reassignment surgery. The information on the website was updated accordingly.

All hell broke loose. TRAs screamed blue murder about intact males being prevented from using a female-only pool. In many cases, they proved exactly WHY it’s so important such facilities remain female-only.

This response came from a writer with over 22k followers, they/them Nayuka Gorrie…

The men intent on erasing women’s spaces and boundaries were assisted in their assault on the McIver Women’s Baths by the usual wide-eyed wokerati.

One woman wrote on the baths’ Facebook page, “Please don’t give in to the trans bullies. Muslim women rely on places like this. Trans identifying men can go everywhere; Muslim women cannot”. She was told, “Muslim women need to take the opportunity to learn that having the biological parts does not make you a man”.

Apparently ‘inclusivity’ is only for women with penises.

New South Wales Green MP, Abigail Boyd, leapt on the bandwagon.

Abigail Boyd @AbigailBoydMLC

Women’s spaces must be inclusive of all women. Sign the petition demanding McIvers Ladies Baths apologises and changes its policy here: change.org/p/mciver-s-lad… https://t.co/kjrrdgAAk9

Guardian Australia @GuardianAus

Bodies of water: who is welcome in women's spaces? | Liz Duck-Chong https://t.co/mxapHjNNyz

The University of New South Wales Student Representative Council released a statement: “Anyone who identifies as a woman… should have access to this space”, they said. “Trans women are women. Any statement to the contrary lacks empathy, understanding and scientific rigour and is based in bigotry.”

The University of Sydney Women’s Collective took to social media to make a very lengthy and wince-inducing comment. With pictures.

It contained all the usual hyperbole; fake suicide stats, some made-up notion that transwomen are “three times more likely” to experience sexual assault and even the “transphobia literally kills people” line. Of course, these claims were not substantiated.

Some of the responses to this Facebook post, however, did demonstrate why the R&CLSA were right to keep ‘self identifying women’ out of their pool.

Sadly, faced with this onslaught of bullying and blackmail, the R&CLSA had no choice but to capitulate and within 24 hours this 100 year old female-only pool was open to males. Its website now says: “Transgender women are welcome to the McIver’s Ladies Baths, our definition for transgender is as per the NSW Discrimination Act.”

The act defines transgendered women as anyone who “Identifies as a member of the opposite sex by living, or seeking to live, as a member of the opposite sex”. (Whatever that means.)

But even this isn’t enough for the baying mob of gender ideologues. They have started a petition demanding a public apology (ie total supplication) from the R&CLSA and an ‘explicit’ trans-inclusive policy. Furthermore, on Sunday they held a protest and mass swim-in at the baths and revelled in filling the pool with men.

Sydney boasts many beautiful beaches and dozens of seafront and harbour bathing pools. Why can’t women be allowed one little 20 meter long seawater baths? Because men will not allow us to have even one tiny place of our own that doesn’t include them. And when men ‘identify as women’, the validation they demand drives their determination to colonise our spaces with an even greater ferocity.

Please help try and keep the McIver Women’s Baths female-only by signing this petition. A safe haven for women for decades, it is too precious a resource to lose.