Protest against all-inclusive change rooms at Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre

February 6, 2023

Aquatics / Marketing /

An anti-trans protest outside the Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre objecting to the facility’s trans-inclusive policy attracted a small group on Friday morning.

According to the group, LGB Tasmania, biological males shouldn’t be given access to female-only spaces and change rooms.

The protest was against Hobart City Council’s trans-inclusive policy at the facility, which is understood to have been in place for four years without previous public complaints.

As reported by the Star Observer, LGB Tasmania claimed to be standing up for the “privacy and dignity of women and girls,” and asking for the repeal of Tasmania’s gender identity laws.

One of the biggest issues that the group has is posters in the women’s toilet and changing rooms.

In these spaces, the posters inform female patrons that they are inclusive change rooms, something that LGB Tasmania spokesperson Jessica Hoye says is unacceptable.

Hoye advised “to suggest girls and women that they have no choice but to share private spaces with males whether they are trans or not is an insult and a breach of their human rights.

“In places where girls and women undress they need to feel safe and deserve privacy and dignity.”

“Under current Anti-Discrimination laws, any male can come into the women’s change rooms and say they identify as female.”

Equality Tasmania has spoken against the protest, stating that it’s clearly trying to undermine Tasmania’s equal discrimination protections for the state’s trans and gender-diverse residents.

Equality Tasmania spokesperson, Rose Boccalatte told the Star Observer “the Aquatic Centre has had inclusive facilities for four years without any complaints,” a spokesperson for Equality Tasmania.

“The protest wasn’t about the Aquatic Centre or about ‘protecting women’, it was about a concerted attack on the equal discrimination protections of trans and gender diverse Tasmanians. We urge Tasmanians to support the state’s gold-standard anti-discrimination laws because they have helped foster a kinder and more inclusive Tasmania.”

Former Hobart City Councillor Jeff Briscoe’s reportedly participated in the protest.

Image: Protestors outside the Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre. Credit: LBG Tasmania/Facebook.

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