A few examples of the experiences reported to Sharron Davies, repeated all over the UK
Two lovely older ladies had been doing their ladies-only swimming class for years, not too far from where I live near Bath. It is the one thing they did religiously each week. One of the ladies has to catch a bus very early to come, and they always go for a coffee afterwards and put the world to rights. It keeps them fit, it is fun, gives them something to look forward to, and helps to maintain their mental health.
One day, an adult male turned up who self-identified as a woman. He insisted on changing in the open space they had with them, then doing the session. They complained to the leisure centre about how uncomfortable it made them feel, but were told there was nothing they could do; it was the law. But as we know, that is not the case at all. Self ID has never been the law in the UK, and the Equality Act enables safe, sex based changing rooms for dignity and safety.
They told staff that this man watched them undress and, though they tried to change under their towels and even in the toilet, it meant they no longer enjoyed their session. They felt threatened, and their feelings were ignored. When no one wanted to help them, they gave up their sessions. I have heard this story dozens of times.
It also applies to minority groups of women who are not permitted by their religion to change with men. Women and girls have been giving up their beloved activities because a man’s feelings became more important than all the females in the group.
A mother wrote to me about her daughter’s school sports day. It was a primary school in the Midlands, and the head had one little boy who wished to identify as a girl. So, to seem inclusive, he decided they would run joint boys and girls races instead of single sex segregated events.
Not one little girl won a race all day. Statistics show us from 6, boys outperform girls on average in running and throwing. This very sporty 11 year old girl was in tears when she came home, she said to her mum, “what was the point of us taking part mum?”.
Her mum was furious but frightened of saying anything. Like so many. So she reached out to me, this email had me in tears. What message are we giving our little girls? The message they certainly got was that the feelings of every single little girl in that school were less important than the feelings of one boy, who thought he was something he was not.
He could have so easily still been included with the other little boys, where it was on a level playing field, wearing what he wanted, calling himself whatever he wanted. But instead, every little girl was sacrificed for that one boy’s feelings.
This again was not a lone school. Many schools decided to do this under the ridiculous banner of inclusivity. But it’s not inclusive to ignore the rights of all young females, to tell them their opportunities and feelings just don’t matter. At the WSU we intend to stop this inequality and stupidity.
A senior and accomplished female sports coach contacted me, prepared to give up her job because she was being asked to drop a hardworking, talented female member of her squad and replace her with a biological male, in a women’s team.
I encouraged her to rally the women in her team, and they then approached their governing body and said they would not race with this male on their team because it was unfair and unjust.
The power of that unified approach made their sport change its rules to at last protect the female category, but all of those involved were still not prepared to break cover publicly, such is the way female coaches and athletes are attacked and shamed for just wanting fair sport based on proven science.
It was a win, but had to be done in secret because of the fear of activist retribution on careers and earning capacity.
We now know most sports at elite level offer some protection for their female athletes. This has taken ten years to claw back, but it must be won back for all women at all levels.
The father of a female youth football team player wrote to me about the FA’s policy of putting teenage girls’ teams up against boys’ teams a few years younger to toughen them up. And of course, also of allowing males to self-ID into female teams.
His daughter’s team had not won a single fixture all year against these teams, often losing by huge scores. They had also sustained increased injuries, and their morale had fallen through the floor. His daughter had started self-harming. He did not know what to do to help her, and they were both scared to speak out.
At one time, over 100 known males were stealing places on women’s football teams. There are over 4000 football clubs in the UK, but only 10% offer a female team to play on. Males kick 50% harder than females, and the Q angle from knees to hips gives males a better cadence when running. Women and girls get so much less opportunity to play sports than their male counterparts: less money, less exposure, and less support.
I suggested all the parents come together to say “NO” and protect their kids, but he felt unable to do that, such was the pressure of the FA. They have now at least done that, but not for the benefit of their female athletes, more because insurance companies will not indemnify public liability claims, which are against the law, re the Supreme Court clarification of April 2025.
A woman contacted me about her daughter’s ice hockey team; they were primarily a junior team of 15, 16 and 17-year-old girls. An adult man in his late 20s who identified as a woman joined the team, and a girl was dropped to enable him to play matches.
The mother found pornographic images on his social media and alerted the team manager and the club. They did nothing. They even vilified the mother. She was told she could not stop this male from playing on her daughter’s team. This same individual was allowed to use the women’s changing rooms.
Again, most of the parents were petrified to speak out. A few moved to other clubs, but we don’t have that many ice hockey rinks in the UK, so that was hard to do. The rest came changed for games, and of course, again injuries went up. The girls also commented that they felt they were cheating by fielding a male on their team.
He has now been removed, but this went on for a long time. We know bad laws will be taken advantage of by bad people, but that inevitability has been ignored for virtue signalling points, and women and girls have paid the price.
If you’ve experienced something similar, you don’t have to stay silent.
You can contact us directly for support, or explore our legal templates to take action in your own time.
In 2025, the UK Supreme Court confirmed that under the Equality Act 2010 the terms man and woman mean biological sex. This ruling removes any doubt about how the Act applies in sport and safeguarding.
The earlier Sex Discrimination Act 1975 had already made it unlawful to treat someone less favourably because of their sex. The Equality Act built on these protections, and the Court’s decision makes clear that female-only sport is fully supported in UK law.
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