‘Do not talk about trans ruling,' staff at Highgate Men's Pond told
Staff at Highgate Men's Pond have been told not to discuss the Supreme Court's transgender ruling with swimmers, The Telegraph can reveal.
In a move described as 'draconian' by women's rights activists, the City of London Corporation responsible for the Hampstead Heath ponds told staff they 'must not get drawn into any conversations' with swimmers about the ruling.
Last week, the London authority announced that transgender people could continue to access the single-sex bathing ponds, despite the court's unanimous judgement.
The authority confirmed its gender self-ID policy would 'remain in effect at this time' at both the Men's Pond and Kenwood Ladies' Pond. Campaigners described the decision as 'unlawful' and said a third, unisex pond was available.
It has now emerged that corporation staff at the Men's Pond have been ordered not to speak about the ruling or their employer's stance.
A notice in the staff hut states: 'Until further notices from our senior management team we must not get drawn into any conversations with swimmers or visitors about the ruling.'
If asked about the issue, staff are instructed to reply: 'We are continuing as we are until we hear further from our senior management team'.
They are also told to refer questions to the press office and report any swimmer who raises concerns over the lack of single-sex provision to their line manager.
The notice ends: 'Please make sure you report any issues or inappropriate behaviour related to the above, using our incident reporting form and let your Team Leader know so we can escalate accordingly.'
It comes as campaigners prepare to stage a protest at the Men's Pond on Monday, dubbed 'Bank Holiday Man-Day'.
Venice Allan, 49, a feminist activist leading efforts to restore Kenwood Ladies' Pond as a female-only space, said campaigners plan to take over the male bathing spot to demonstrate against the London authority's failure to ban trans women from the women's pond.
In a similar 2018 protest, women in fake beards and swimsuits were removed by police.
She said: 'There are three ponds and people with gender identities are safe and welcome at the mixed-sex pond. We will continue to invade the men's space until ours is female-only again.'
Ms Allan also criticised the decision by council chiefs to limit what swimming staff can say about the ruling, saying they are being made complicit.
She said: 'Not content with breaking the law, the City of London Corporation is now dragging its own staff into complicity. This draconian order appears to gag workers from even acknowledging their employer's unlawful conduct to the public.
'It also instructs staff to report any instance of a swimmer having the temerity to question the breach – effectively encouraging them to inform on concerned members of the public to senior Corporation bosses. It's chilling.'
Last week, a prominent barrister told The Telegraph that continuing to label the ponds as 'men's' and 'ladies'' could now expose the corporation to legal challenge.
Sarah Vine KC said that if the City of London Corporation wished to maintain its gender self-ID stance, it 'should not describe the ponds as anything other than mixed-sex'.
She said: 'Any continued description of two of the ponds as 'men's' and 'ladies' will expose the Corporation to discrimination claims; the practical effect of doing so is far more likely to result in a de facto single-sex facility for men, who can enjoy the consequential privacy, with no corresponding provision for women.'
She added: 'This is despite the fact that women's overall need for safety and privacy is generally higher than that of men.'
Responding to criticism of their stance last week, the City of London Corporation told The Telegraph that 'accusations' their policy was unlawful were 'completely false'.
A spokesman said: 'The City Corporation is compliant with existing UK law.
'In line with other affected organisations we are carefully considering the judgement and awaiting statutory guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission – which service providers must take into account.'
They added that a 'carefully considered decision' will be taken on the issue 'in due course'.
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'Logistical things like packets with turf maps that make sense…,' Garcia said. 'If you actually live in the area, you know, there are problems with how it's put together, and it slows down our door knockers. Things like we're not doing enough talking to our rural voters, and we're not doing enough to talk to our farmers.' As chair, Garcia said he would want to ensure that county parties have the resources, tools, training and infrastructure so that they can spend all their time reaching out to voters. He said that he also wants to ensure that county parties have a bigger seat at the table when it comes to organizing and messaging decision making. 'County parties are the experts in what is happening in their own communities, and we need to be listening to them in ways that we're not right now about the best way to really reach out and talk to voters in those areas,' Garcia said. 'The organizing strategy that works in Madison is not the organizing strategy that works best in Pierce County, and the messaging that works wonderfully in Milwaukee is not necessarily the strategy that's going to work best in Menominee.' Garcia added that this would apply to other local organizing organizations, including the state party caucuses such as the Latino, Black and rural caucuses. Garcia said strengthening the county parties is essential towards winning the trifecta in 2026. 'It's the county parties that are really the hub of activity for electing our Assembly candidates and our state Senate candidates. It is the county parties where we find our door knocking volunteers. It's the county party where we find the infrastructure the candidates need to tap into in order to mount an effective campaign, and so the stronger we can make these county parties, the more likely we are to flip those Assembly and Senate seats that we need to flip.' Garcia said it is also important to get to the areas where it's difficult to win as well. 'Even if an Assembly seat goes 65% for Republicans and is a very difficult win for a Democrat, we still desperately need those votes for our statewide office holders.' Garcia said that people don't get elected by being against something so Democrats needs to be proactive, illustrating what they are doing for people, their vision for government and, specifically, honing in on a message of 'protecting Wisconsin families.' 'That's what Democrats are trying to do from child care, where we're trying to make it actually affordable to pay for child care, trying to expand Medicaid so that pregnant women have the care that they need to take care of their babies, all the way up to protecting Medicare and Social Security,' Garcia said. 'It is Democrats that are consistently passing laws — or preventing Republicans from passing laws — to help our people.' 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