A trans woman who destroyed a hotel spa for not giving her a key to a female locker room has been spared a furious spat with critics including Sharron Davies.
Anne Coombes, 65, vented on Twitter that her day was ‘spoiled’ after discovering she couldn’t get her locker key to work in the female dressing room at the four-star Mercure hotel in Sheffield.
She claimed a member of staff had ‘assumed’ she wanted to use the unisex changing facilities and has since demanded that the maid be sent for gender sensitivity training.
Furious at being treated “like I’m not a woman,” she tweeted, “I’m so f*****g angry. I am at the Mercure Hotel in Sheffield and would like to use the pool. I couldn’t get my locker key to work with the ladies.
“Apparently the assistant had ‘assumed’ I wanted the unisex locker room. With me dressed like this,” she shared a photo 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 like I’m not a woman…decent people accept the self-identity rule. If in doubt, find a polite way to ask, don’t assume.”
But Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, who campaigns to keep biological men out of women’s sports, said: ‘You’re a man, use the locker room with other men or at least the unisex locker room! Deciding that you want to change where you want to change does NOT trump women’s and girls’ rights. PS. I don’t know any woman who would cause so much inconvenience to others.’
Anne Coombes, 65, vented on Twitter after she couldn’t get her locker key to work in the female locker room at the four-star Mercure hotel in Sheffield
A trans woman blew up a hotel asking if she wanted to use the unisex changing rooms when she arrived to use the pool, claiming the experience “ruined her day”
Twitter user Anne Coombes vented on social media after she couldn’t get her locker key to work in the female changing room at the Mercure Hotel in Sheffield
Sharron Davies sided with the hotel
Her tweets went viral and the next day she said, “I am overwhelmed by the number of people who have gone out of their way to voice their concerns and offer their virtual or real support. Thank you to each of you, I appreciate you stepping up as an ally.
“And to all those people who weren’t on my side, I’m sorry but I will stay, I’m not going away. No matter how much you lie about me, I’ll still be here when you run out of things to say.”
Reactions to her tweets have been mixed. An ally said, “I’m sorry to hear this happened to you Anne and also sorry for the abuse you’ve had to endure. standing with you’.
But one critic said, “Why not use the unisex locker room if you know you’re making some women uncomfortable?” How hard is that?’
It comes as women’s rights activists, including author JK Rowling, are desperately trying to prevent public agencies and businesses from replacing segregated toilets for men and women with gender-neutral toilets that are installed to make transgender people more welcoming.
From the National Trust to UK theaters and even the Houses of Parliament, proposals to install gender-neutral toilets have been labeled as awake and dangerous.
In May, parents at Walsall Academy, near Wolverhampton, feared new gender-neutral toilets would see 11-year-olds sharing toilets with 18-year-olds of the opposite sex.
There were reports of students filming each other in the toilets, while teenage girls refused to drink water because they had to wait until they got home before defecating.
Meanwhile, The Telegraph reported late last month that a teenage boy was reportedly arrested on charges of sexually assaulting female pupils in the gender-neutral toilets at another Essex secondary school.
In response, JK Rowling has warned that gender-neutral toilets sacrifice girls’ “safety, privacy and dignity.”
Her views on gender-neutral toilets are supported 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 a man.”
It comes as women’s rights activists, including author JK Rowling, are desperate to prevent public agencies and businesses from replacing gender-neutral toilets with gender-neutral toilets in an effort to make trans people more welcoming. (File image)
Davies added: ‘…use the changing room with other men or at least the unisex changing room!
“Deciding that you want to change where you want to change is NOT above women’s and girls’ rights. PS. I don’t know any woman who would cause so much inconvenience to others.’
The trans woman replied, “Sharron, you don’t know anything about me, and all you know about the incident is what I revealed.” Don’t assume you know things about me without proof. It shows an arrogance that doesn’t fit.’
TalkTV host Julia Hartley-Brewer also weighed in by tweeting, “Yeah, of course, what all women and girls look for when they’re naked in a locker room is a big angry man demanding to be there with them because he’s dressed like a woman.” uh huh.’
Accor, the company that owns Mercure, has been approached for comment by MailOnline.