Backlash over spa’s ‘no male genitals’ policy

TORONTO — A female-only spa’s “no male genitals” policy has reignited debate over the rights of transgender people to use traditionally gender-exclusive spaces.

Toronto-based Body Blitz Spa’s policy has prompted a flurry of complaints, with longtime regular Shelley Marshall among those vowing to boycott the luxurious retreat.

Marshall said she tried to take her transgender friend to the spa last year, but was told her friend would only be welcome at the bathing suit-optional facility if she had had sex-reassignment surgery.

“I didn’t want to embarrass my friend, I didn’t want to humiliate my friend, I didn’t want all this to happen,” Marshall said of not speaking out at the time. “I’m embarrassed I never stuck up for my friend.”

Toronto-based LGBTQ author Jia Qing Wilson-Yang wrote on Twitter she was told not to visit the spa because they “won’t allow male genitalia.” That followed a Facebook post by Weronika Jane who said the spa’s manager called a friend one hour before their booking “to say that they couldn’t come because they had a ‘no male genital rule.’ ”

This week, Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany wrote on Twitter that until the spa “changes its policies and is an inclusive space for all women, I’ll no longer be going.” Regina-born Maslany plays a slew of characters on her Space series, including lesbian and transgender characters.

The row comes as the federal government is pushing stronger protections prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression.

Body Blitz said in a statement it supports the LGBTQ community. “However, because Body Blitz Spa is a single-sex facility with full nudity, we are not like other facilities. We recognize that this is an important discussion for single-sex facilities to have and we will seek to find a satisfactory resolution,” the statement said.

Some people supported its position. “Thank you for standing up for women. Private spaces for naked female bodies. Identity irrelevant,” wrote one social media supporter, Rachel Ralison.

But York University professor Sheila Cavanagh, who specializes in gender and sexuality studies, said aside from violating provincial laws governing gender discrimination, such incidents highlight the difficulty in adhering to strictly binary definitions of gender.

“There are many ways of being trans and there are many ways of being a woman,” said Cavanagh, noting that trans rights are enshrined in the Ontario Human Rights Code. “Certainly, surgery or hormones, per se, do not make a woman. I think it’s gender identity that matters and what is between our legs is our own business.”

Not all trans people have surgeries and not all trans people use or take hormones, Cavanagh said. The rules around genderexclusive places are typically based on fears that men will enter a space in which they are not welcome or “that non-trans women will somehow be triggered or made afraid by the presence of a penis,” she said.

But Cavanagh said her research on violence in gendered bathrooms found no evidence of a trans woman assaulting a nontrans woman in a public space.

“The fear of violence against women is unfortunately used to justify trans-exclusion policies,” she said, noting that many women’s shelters have transpositive policies. “It’s not just violence against cis-gendered women, it’s also violence against trans women that matters.”

Marshall said: “I don’t think a man is going to try and sneak in as a woman and pay $75 to go sit in a pool. For what purpose?”

But she added: “A trans person has to live as a woman before they can get surgery. This is just another way of telling them: ‘You have no place in our society.’ ”

Federal legislation under Bill C-16 would bolster existing provincial laws to make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity and expression. Currently, trans rights are interpreted in various ways by each province.