Female-only spaces are quickly becoming obsolete in Toronto, Canada, where transgender rights take priority over the rights of biological women.
Toronto’s Body Blitz Spa is under attack on social media where allies of cross-dressers, transvestites and transsexuals say the spa’s “no male genitals” rule is discriminatory.
It all started when Toronto-based author Jia Qing Wilson-Yang, who was born a male, tweeted last week that he was told not to visit the spa.
As word spread on social media, the Body Blitz Spa issued a statement insisting it supports the LGBTQ community.
“However, because Body Blitz Spa is a single-sex facility with full nudity, we are not like other facilities. We recognize that this is an important discussion for single-sex facilities to have and we will seek to find a satisfactory resolution.”
Biological women in Toronto are relieved that there is still one place they can go where they are not confronted with gender confused men who seek to invade female-only spaces.
“Thank you for standing up for women. Private spaces for naked female bodies. Identity irrelevant,” said one woman on social media.
But at least one biological woman sees the spa’s ‘no male genitals’ rule as gender discrimination.
York University associate professor Sheila Cavanagh, who teaches sociology and gender sexuality, says the Body Blitz Spa violates Toronto’s “provincial laws governing gender discrimination”.
“There are many ways of being trans and there are many ways of being a woman,” says Cavanagh, who adds that many transgenders opt out of removing their male genitals and do not take female hormones.
“And certainly surgery or hormones, per se, do not make a woman…. I think it’s gender identity that matters and what is between our legs is our own business,” she says.
Cavanagh dismisses women’s rights to privacy and contends that gender-exclusive places are typically based on fears “that [biological women] will somehow be triggered or made afraid by the presence of a penis.”
She reels off statistics that show no true transgender has ever attacked a female in a women’s restroom or locker room.
And she insists that no biological man would “try and sneak in as a woman and pay $75 to go sit (in a pool). For what purpose?”
“The fear of violence against women is unfortunately used to justify trans-exclusion policies,” she said.
Cavanaugh says cross-dressers and transsexuals also fear violence committed by biological men.
“It’s not just violence against [biological] women, it’s also violence against trans women that matters.”
Cavanaugh is encouraged that Toronto’s federal legislation Bill C-16 is likely to pass. The bill will make it illegal for female-only spaces like Body Blitz Spa to discriminate against gender confused men.
But Cavanaugh still doesn’t think the bill is enough since many women will simply cancel their memberships and the spa will close its doors.
“In addition to developing a policy, members need to be educated so that transphobia isn’t allowed under the auspices of women’s safety,” she says.
