Trans lobby group advises men to call 999 if asked to leave ladies changing rooms

The controversial trans-activist group Mermaids is under fire for advising men who claim to be women to call 999 if they are asked to leave female-only spaces such as changing rooms and toilets.

In a helpsheet section headed ‘What To Do If Someone Asks You To Leave A Facility’, it claims: “If you are at risk of harm, try and get somewhere safe and call someone you trust, or the emergency services if you feel comfortable in doing so on 999.”

The LGBT activist group published its helpsheet after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) clarified that men who identify as women can be legitimately excluded from female-only spaces.

‘Grossly irresponsible’

Discrimination barrister Naomi Cunningham criticised Mermaids, calling its advice to phone the emergency services “grossly irresponsible”.

Barrister Amanda Jones, who specialises in equality law, told The Telegraph: “If an organisation is lawfully providing single-sex facilities, refusing to leave would certainly be a problem. The provider would be entitled to use security or call the police.”

Mermaids also told those who claim to be the opposite sex that they should request the reason for their removal in writing.

If an organisation is lawfully providing single-sex facilities, refusing to leave would certainly be a problem.

Hospital wards

Earlier this year, LGBT activists expressed outrage after the EHRC published its guidance on single-sex spaces.

Areas such as changing rooms, fitness classes, refuges and rape counselling clinics may reasonably require that the spaces are explicitly reserved for biological women in order to protect those women’s dignity and privacy. Consideration is also given for religious belief.

The guidance extends to hospital wards, but transgender NHS equality chief Tara Hewitt, who was born male but now lives as if a female, called on other senior NHS officials to “ignore” the legal opinion of the human rights body by “putting it in the bin”.