The Randwick City Council has formally confirmed that the current access policy for McIver's Ladies Baths will remain unchanged. This outcome secures the legal exemptions necessary to preserve the site as a space exclusively for women and children. We will continue to monitor council proceedings to ensure these terms are …
March 22, 2021
Final supporters
We call on Randwick City Council to support McIver’s Ladies Baths continuing to operate as a female-only swimming pool and all steps being taken to ensure any exemption from discrimination legislation is observed and extended if necessary.
McIver's Ladies Baths is an ocean pool near Sydney's Coogee Beach, carved out of the sandstone rocks at the bottom of the cliffs in 1866. McIver's has been women-only since 1876. Prior to colonisation the natural pools were frequented by Aboriginal women of the Eora nation who used the waters for bathing and birthing.
There are 35 such ocean pools in Sydney, all with historical significance. McIver’s is the only one that operates as a single-sex pool, allowing women of all cultures and body types to swim freely without men present. Wylie's Baths is one of the other 34 mixed-sex pools available to the public and is only a short stroll from McIver's. It is three times the size of the ladies baths, with many more facilities than the very basic ones available at the smaller ladies pool.
McIver's has recently come under pressure from transgender activists demanding that anyone who identifies as a woman be granted access to the pool, including males that have not undergone hormone treatment or sex reassignment surgery but simply claim a 'woman identity'.
What those transgender activists have not considered are the women who will have nowhere to swim:
- The coastal areas of Sydney are home to many older religious orders of nuns who frequent the pools
- Women with disabilities
- Women with disfigurements from accidents and attacks
- Women with birth defects
- Women of faith who are unable to swim elsewhere, such as Muslim and Jewish women
- Lesbian women
- Mothers with babies needing a safe space
- Teenage girls seeking to avoid male attention on their maturing bodies
- Women who are overweight and wish to avoid male judgement
These women deserve privacy away from the male gaze and McIver's has always been their haven. McIver’s Ladies Baths must continue to operate as a space only for women and children.
You can contact Randwick City Council directly to make your opinion known: [email protected]
Please note, donations go to iPetitions, not to the organisers of this petition.
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https://www.facebook.com/Coalition-for-Biological-...
Women's Guild NSW:
https://www.facebook.com/Womens-Guild-NSW-11082638...
Women Speak Tasmania:
https://www.facebook.com/womenspeaktas
Feminist Legal Clinic (Sydney):
https://www.facebook.com/feministlegal
https://feministlegal.org/
International Women's Day Brisbane/Meanjin:
https://www.facebook.com/IWDbrisbane
Victorian Women's Guild:
https://www.facebook.com/VicWomensGuild
REAL for Women:
https://www.facebook.com/getrealforwomen
Updates
February 4, 2021
The petition reached 5,000 signatures today. I am currently preparing a formal briefing document to present to the Randwick City Council members next week.
Reached 5,000 supporters
February 2, 2021
Reached 1,000 supporters
January 14, 2021
Reached 100 supporters
January 14, 2021
1,725 Comments
Biological women have the right to their own spaces, away from males (regardless of how the males identify). It is important for many religious women to have space away from males; to ignore that is to deny women's freedom of religious observance.
The stream of abuse they've received should be a good indicator as to why the baths should be kept female only. The people shouting "let us in or else", knowing full well there are dozens of other spaces they can use, clearly don't have good intentions.
No biological male should be allowed in women-only spaces. Regardless of how a man presents, the potential for male-pattern violence remains. Nor do predators, perverts and paedophiles carry overt identification. Women-only spaces protect women. Men don’t.
There are 34 other pools which anyone can use. Allowing males to use McIver’s Ladies Baths is direct discrimination against women, particularly the groups listed in the petition - in particular it borders upon islamophobia and antisemitism in my opinion.
Please keep it only for women and children, this place may be the only one where they can feel safe and happy. I would like to add that this place will probably lose so many visitors if you do it. Please let's keep it that way for us, women.
No men in womens spaces. Trans women are men. I know it. They know it. Everybody knows it. This gender lunacy is hurting women and children.
Transwomen are men!
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The Randwick City Council has formally confirmed that the current access policy for McIver's Ladies Baths will remain unchanged. This outcome secures the legal exemptions necessary to preserve the site as a space exclusively for women and children. We will continue to monitor council proceedings to ensure these terms are …
March 22, 2021
Final supporters
We call on Randwick City Council to support McIver’s Ladies Baths continuing to operate as a female-only swimming pool and all steps being taken to ensure any exemption from discrimination legislation is observed and extended if necessary.
McIver's Ladies Baths is an ocean pool near Sydney's Coogee Beach, carved out of the sandstone rocks at the bottom of the cliffs in 1866. McIver's has been women-only since 1876. Prior to colonisation the natural pools were frequented by Aboriginal women of the Eora nation who used the waters for bathing and birthing.
There are 35 such ocean pools in Sydney, all with historical significance. McIver’s is the only one that operates as a single-sex pool, allowing women of all cultures and body types to swim freely without men present. Wylie's Baths is one of the other 34 mixed-sex pools available to the public and is only a short stroll from McIver's. It is three times the size of the ladies baths, with many more facilities than the very basic ones available at the smaller ladies pool.
McIver's has recently come under pressure from transgender activists demanding that anyone who identifies as a woman be granted access to the pool, including males that have not undergone hormone treatment or sex reassignment surgery but simply claim a 'woman identity'.
What those transgender activists have not considered are the women who will have nowhere to swim:
- The coastal areas of Sydney are home to many older religious orders of nuns who frequent the pools
- Women with disabilities
- Women with disfigurements from accidents and attacks
- Women with birth defects
- Women of faith who are unable to swim elsewhere, such as Muslim and Jewish women
- Lesbian women
- Mothers with babies needing a safe space
- Teenage girls seeking to avoid male attention on their maturing bodies
- Women who are overweight and wish to avoid male judgement
These women deserve privacy away from the male gaze and McIver's has always been their haven. McIver’s Ladies Baths must continue to operate as a space only for women and children.
You can contact Randwick City Council directly to make your opinion known: [email protected]
Please note, donations go to iPetitions, not to the organisers of this petition.
Follow us on Facebook
The Coalition for Biological Reality - Australia & New Zealand:
https://www.facebook.com/Coalition-for-Biological-...
Women's Guild NSW:
https://www.facebook.com/Womens-Guild-NSW-11082638...
Women Speak Tasmania:
https://www.facebook.com/womenspeaktas
Feminist Legal Clinic (Sydney):
https://www.facebook.com/feministlegal
https://feministlegal.org/
International Women's Day Brisbane/Meanjin:
https://www.facebook.com/IWDbrisbane
Victorian Women's Guild:
https://www.facebook.com/VicWomensGuild
REAL for Women:
https://www.facebook.com/getrealforwomen
Updates
February 4, 2021
The petition reached 5,000 signatures today. I am currently preparing a formal briefing document to present to the Randwick City Council members next week.
Reached 5,000 supporters
February 2, 2021
Reached 1,000 supporters
January 14, 2021
Reached 100 supporters
January 14, 2021
1,725 Comments
This world is run and overrun by men. However they identify, transwomen share a lifetime of male privilege and male social conditioning. We need our few female spaces, the lack of which kept women out of public life until so recently, for so long.
Biological women have the right to their own spaces, away from males (regardless of how the males identify). It is important for many religious women to have space away from males; to ignore that is to deny women's freedom of religious observance.
The stream of abuse they've received should be a good indicator as to why the baths should be kept female only. The people shouting "let us in or else", knowing full well there are dozens of other spaces they can use, clearly don't have good intentions.
No biological male should be allowed in women-only spaces. Regardless of how a man presents, the potential for male-pattern violence remains. Nor do predators, perverts and paedophiles carry overt identification. Women-only spaces protect women. Men don’t.
There are 34 other pools which anyone can use. Allowing males to use McIver’s Ladies Baths is direct discrimination against women, particularly the groups listed in the petition - in particular it borders upon islamophobia and antisemitism in my opinion.
Please keep it only for women and children, this place may be the only one where they can feel safe and happy. I would like to add that this place will probably lose so many visitors if you do it. Please let's keep it that way for us, women.
No men in womens spaces. Trans women are men. I know it. They know it. Everybody knows it. This gender lunacy is hurting women and children.
Transwomen are men!
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This world is run and overrun by men. However they identify, transwomen share a lifetime of male privilege and male social conditioning. We need our few female spaces, the lack of which kept women out of public life until so recently, for so long.