Caz Coronel was standing in the queue for the ladies\u2019 at the Royal Festival Hall on London\u2019s South Bank when she registered a male voice shouting across the vestibule: \u201cThe men\u2019s toilets are on this side!\u201d<\/p>\n
At first the composer and producer paid little attention, until the man \u2013 whom Coronel describes as tall and in his late 60s \u2013 approached and touched her shoulder.<\/p>\n
He continued to challenge her about being in the wrong queue until she asked him bluntly: \u201cDo you want to see my tits?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds funny, but at the time I was shocked,\u201d she said. At that moment, another woman, who Coronel presumes was the man\u2019s wife, ushered him away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have short hair and don\u2019t mind if people think I look male. I\u2019ve often been called \u2018Sir\u2019 but when they see my face they either apologise or ask me politely what I like to be called. But I\u2019ve never had anyone approach me before in such a publicly aggressive way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat then flashed through my mind was: Is this what this ruling has done?\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the supreme court\u2019s ruling on biological sex<\/a>, debate around its practical application has focused heavily on access to women\u2019s toilet and changing facilities \u2013 in particular after initial advice on implementation from the equalities watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, amounted to a blanket ban<\/a> on trans people using toilets of their lived gender, which many say in effect excludes them from public spaces.<\/p>\n Critics of the ruling have suggested it may likewise affect cis women who do not adhere to a straight, white template of femininity.<\/p>\n Support groups report some early indications that gender non-confirming women are facing increased challenges, raising wider questions about how women read each other\u2019s bodies and whether women\u2019s toilets have ever been entirely safe spaces.<\/p>\n Claire Prihartini, who had a bilateral mastectomy, was challenged by a woman in the changing room of her local pool. Photograph: Alicia Canter\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Others say these anxieties amount to scaremongering from those who do not agree with the judgment of the supreme court.<\/p>\n Claire Prihartini was diagnosed with breast cancer a year and a half ago. \u201cI had a really lucky experience: I found out early, opted for a bilateral mastectomy and didn\u2019t need further treatment.\u201d Her chest is now flat, with two small scars and no nipples.<\/p>\n Last month, Prihartini was in the women\u2019s changing room area of her local pool. \u201cI was standing with my top off in front of the mirror putting on my swimming cap. Another woman walked in, gasped audibly and said: \u2018There\u2019s a man in here!\u2019 I said: \u2018Oh I\u2019m not a man \u2026\u2019 in a friendly way, then she said aggressively: \u2018You look like a man, there aren\u2019t meant to be men in here\u2019 and continued to look at my body. I didn\u2019t want to engage with her any further so I just walked off into the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n Prihartini, whose experience was first shared on social media by her husband, Jolyon Maugham, founder of the Good Law Project, is at pains to make clear that this was not \u201ca massively traumatic experience\u201d. After she walked away the other woman did not continue to challenge her. Like Coronel, however, she links the incident directly to the supreme court ruling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt shocked me that someone felt empowered in the moment to question someone else\u2019s gender so rudely, that it\u2019s becoming normalised.\u201d<\/p>\n While many of the non-conforming women the Guardian spoke to said being challenged in women\u2019s spaces was by no means a new phenomenon for them, they added that they had identified an escalation since April\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who might have given me a look prior to the judgment have got quite bold in recent months,\u201d says Dee, who did not want to give her second name. Dee was recently challenged by another woman in the changing rooms at Marks & Spencer, before unzipping her jacket to reveal her chest. \u201cShe began to apologise but then she said: \u2018Well, you should be careful these days.\u2019 She seemed to mean: how dare I appear masculine?\u201d<\/p>\n Taranjit Chana of Black and Brown Rainbow, a grassroots anti-violence service, says their helpline has seen an increase in calls from black and Asian LGBTQ+ people who fear or have experienced challenge in toilets.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen\u2019s toilets have never felt entirely safe for black and brown women, because we don\u2019t fit that binary way of looking. In some communities, facial hair is part of who we are, but in public toilets people stare and feel it is acceptable to make remarks because we don\u2019t fit a narrow, European version of female.\u201d<\/p>\n Bridget Symonds, director of services at the LGBTQ+ anti-abuse charity Galop, said: \u201cGalop has seen a significant increase in trans+ and gender diverse people coming to our frontline services for hate crime support. We\u2019ve seen instances where LGBT+ people are being challenged and verbally abused when attempting to access toilets in public spaces, such as pubs. We\u2019re hearing from cisgender lesbians who have been questioned about their gender in public toilets, something happening even before the ruling.\u201d<\/p>\n