DO: Discrimination when women's gym did not admit trans woman

A man who identifies as a woman wanted to train at a gym exclusively for women. He was denied the opportunity to train out of consideration for other members. This was considered discrimination by the Ombudsman against Discrimination, DO.

Biological men who have come to believe they are women and demand access to previously protected women’s spaces such as changing rooms have become somewhat of a pandemic in the Western world as LGBTQ groups have become increasingly aggressive in recent years.

The current case is assessed as “indirect discrimination” by the Ombudsman against Discrimination and concerns the gym Tjejernas Athena in Norrköping. The gym has been in existence for 40 years and has been exclusively for women since its inception. It is a small gym with only one changing room.

The trans woman who wanted to train there in December 2023 was denied, citing that members who change in the gym’s women’s changing room must also look like women when they undress.

The gym points out that some of the members have traumas and come from war-torn areas or have been subjected to violence. A fairly large group of members are also women who, due to their religious beliefs, are covered by veils and clothing and cannot be in other premises in the same way as they can at the gym. At Athena, they can train without having to cover themselves. There are also only women on staff.

“Incredibly discriminated against”

In the report, the man writes:

“DO considers that Tjejernas Athena has violated the prohibition against discrimination,” the authority writes in its decision and refers to the fact that the EU Court of Justice has stated in several rulings that in some cases, transgender people are covered by the discrimination ground of gender and are thus protected by EU anti-discrimination legislation.

Furthermore:

In his report to the Ombudsman against Discrimination, A described himself as a transsexual woman. In A’s contact with the gym, it emerged that she lives socially as a woman and that at the time, she had changed her body with hormones. Based on what has emerged in the Ombudsman against Discrimination’s investigation, A’s former partner had told the gym that A had not changed her body through surgical interventions in the genitalia. In light of A’s statement that she is a transsexual woman and lives socially as a woman, the Ombudsman against Discrimination considers that A is covered by the discrimination ground of gender within the meaning of the Discrimination Act.

For there to be a question of indirect discrimination, a disadvantage is required, and according to the Ombudsman against Discrimination’s assessment, the gym’s actions particularly disadvantage trans women because it means that a larger proportion of trans women than “cis women” (ordinary women) will be denied the opportunity to train at the gym.

“The Ombudsman against Discrimination thus considers that A has been subjected to such a disadvantage as referred to in the provision on indirect discrimination,” the authority writes.