Nadine Chalmers-Ross

Let’s keep the moralists out of our bathrooms.

I hate to dash the fantasies of men everywhere, but there is little communal or erotic about women’s changing rooms.

In the changing rooms at the gym this week I did a bit of a doubletake. The woman washing her hands after going to the loo (10 points for hygiene) looked decidedly masculine.

So I raced to reception in a flap and screeched at the bewildered receptionist ‘‘there’s a man-woman in the ladies, looking at all the ladies’ lady bits, help!’’

Except, of course, I didn’t. But it did make me think.

Is the presence of a man-woman a concern to me, as I wee in a private cubicle, shower in a private cubicle, and attempt to get dressed without showing anyone my jiggly bits (which is always my policy)?

And the answer is no. Maybe she was transgender. Maybe she was just a lot more buffed up than your average lady. But I 100-per cent did not need confirmation to feel safe in the changing room.

I hate to dash the fantasies of men everywhere, but there is little communal or erotic about women’s changing rooms. Sure, there are some who strut their stuff and good for them, but for the most part you keep to yourself.

Teenagers are arguably more vulnerable than my strident almost-31 year old self. That vulnerability was not given enough consideration, according to the mother of a girl whose school decided to let its one transgender student use the girls’ bathrooms.

Laura and her mum have been wheeled out as the faces of Family First’s new ‘‘Ask Me First’’ campaign. A campaign that adopts the usual approach of the bully – sorry, lobby group – that is: inciting fear, discrimination and intolerance as it carries out its self-appointed role as the guardian of morality.

The campaign suggests we should fear transgender teens, which to me seems like Family First is the straight guy who insists your gay mate is definitely hitting on them because, y’know, he likes men and so he must be.

But this is not a peeping tom popping on a dress to sneak into the women’s bathrooms. This is not a rogue bloke infiltrating the girls’ school by donning a kilt. It’s a teenager who’s been admitted as a trans student and who is going through something major at a stage of life when being different can put a target on your back.

Laura’s mum is right about one thing; teenagers are vulnerable. But surely the most vulnerable teen here is the sole transgender kid in a girls’ school full of Lauras, publicly calling them out for wanting to fit in.