A transgender woman who blasted a hotel spa for not giving ‘her’ a key to the female changing rooms has sparked a furious row with critics. 65 year old Anne Coombes, took to Twitter to announce that her day had been ‘spoilt’ after finding she was unable to get her locker key to work in the female changing room of the four-star Mercure Hotel in Sheffield.
CW: swearing
I am so fucking angry. I’m at the Mercure Hotel in Sheffield and i fancied using the swimming pool. I couldn’t get my locker key to work on the ladies. Turns out the assistant had ‘assumed’ I wanted the unisex changing room. With me dressed like this. pic.twitter.com/vFDzWYwSvw— annecoombes@tech.lgbt 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 (@AnneICoombes) July 23, 2023
Claiming that a member of staff had ‘assumed’ that she wanted to use the unisex changing facilities, she is now demanding that the worker is sent for gender sensitivity training.
The Mail Online reports: Furious at being treated ‘as if I am not a woman’, she tweeted: ‘I am so f*****g angry. I’m at the Mercure Hotel in Sheffield and I fancied using the swimming pool. I couldn’t get my locker key to work on the ladies.
‘Turns out the assistant had “assumed” I wanted the unisex changing room. With me dressed like this’, sharing a picture of her in a blue skirt and top on Sunday.
She added: ‘This is the first time anyone IRL (in real life) has treated me as if I am not a woman… decent people accept the rule of self identity. If in doubt then find a polite way to ask, don’t assume’.
It is not clear whether Ms Coombes was staying as a guest at the hotel, but she said she later went back down to ‘ask that the person in question is sent on a diversity, equality and inclusion course’.
Accor, the company which owns Mercure, has been approached for comment by MailOnline.
Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, who is campaigning to keep biological men out of women’s sports, responded to Ms Coombes’ tweet, saying: ‘You’re male, use the changing room with other males or at the very least the unisex changing room! Deciding you wanting to change where you want to change does NOT trump women & girls rights. Ps I don’t know a single female that would subject that level of discomfort on others’.
The trans woman replied: ‘Sharron you know nothing about me, and all you know about the incident is what I have revealed. Don’t presume to know things about me with no evidence. It shows an arrogance which is not becoming.’
TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer also weighed in, tweeting: ‘Yeah, sure, what all women and girls are looking for when they’re naked in a changing room is a big angry man who demands to be in there with them because he’s dressed as a woman. Uh huh.’
Ms Coombes tweets on Sunday went viral and the following day she said: ‘I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have gone out of their way to state their concern and offer their support whether virtual or real. Thank you to each and everyone of you, I value your standing up as an ally.
‘And to all those people who weren’t on my side, I’m sorry but I will continue to exist, I am not going away. It doesn’t matter how much you lie about me I will still be here when you have run out of things to say’.
The response to her tweets have been mixed. One ally said: ‘Sorry to hear this has happened to you Anne and also sorry for the abuse you have had to put up with. Standing with you’.
But one critic said: ‘Why couldn’t you use the unisex changing room if you know you make some women uncomfortable? How hard is that?’
