spiked-online.com
2026-11-13
Last year, the UK Supreme Court made it clear that 'sex', 'woman' and 'man' in the Equality Act refer to biological sex. Which should have settled who gets to swim where.
But the City of London Corporation, which runs the Hampstead ponds, appears to think it can carry on pretending the word 'woman' means whatever you want it to mean. It's now defending its admissions policy in a court case brought by the human-rights charity Sex Matters.
The Hampstead ponds are the perfect example of how gender ideology can strip women of their sex-based rights. It's so simple a child could understand it. You have three ponds: a men's pond, a ladies' pond and a mixed pond. The mixed pond is open to everyone.
But, under the current policy, men can also swim in the ladies' pond. All they have to do is say 'I'm a lady' and they're in. They get to use the women's changing rooms, too. So a woman can choose the ladies' pond because she wants to swim and get changed away from men, and still end up taking off her wet swimsuit in front of a man.