Primark installs gender neutral changing rooms following claims of unfair treatment by transgender customers
- Primark has installed unisex fitting areas at stores in Gravesend and Hastings
- It made decision following claims of unfair treatment by transgender customers
- Decision has angered customers who have threatened to boycott the branches
Primark has installed its first gender neutral changing rooms.
It has installed unisex fitting areas at its giant new store at the Bluewater mall near Gravesend, Kent, and a new store at Hastings, East Sussex.
It made the decision following claims of unfair treatment by transgender customers.
Primark has installed its first gender neutral changing rooms. Stock image shows a Primark changing room
The decision has angered some shoppers who have threatened to boycott branches involved.
One person tweeted: ‘How to lose the largest amount of customers in a day, cater for the minority and not the majority. I won’t be buying anymore #Privacy in #Changing rooms for women and children.’
Although there has been some backlash, the decision has been welcomed by equality campaigners, The Mirror reported.
One Primark customer previously claimed in April last year that her friend was forced to show her passport before she could use a changing room at a branch in Coventry.
There was backlash online after the incident.
One customer tweeted: ‘If a transfemme/transbutch person feels they need to change in the female changing area, let them.’
It has installed unisex fitting areas at its giant new store at the Bluewater mall near Gravesend, Kent, and a new store at Hastings, East Sussex. Stock image shows a Primark store
Another claimed: ‘Turned away from both the male AND female dressing rooms. trans ppl exist guys.’
In 2017, Topshop’s billionaire owner, Sir Philip Green, sparked a similar debate when he announced that all changing rooms would be gender neutral.
This month it was announced female gymnasts of all ages at British clubs must now use the same changing facilities and toilets as males who identify as female, following a ruling by the sport’s governing body.
Primark has gender neutral dressing rooms in some of its continental stores.
Primark, owned by Associated British Foods, told the Mirror, it had introduced ‘non-gendered fitting rooms to improve the customer experience’ at the two stores but those at its other 195 UK shops continue to be labelled male and female.
Primark has been approached by MailOnline for comment.
Transgender woman Joni Bendall stormed out of the Primark store in Ipswich, in 2015 Suffolk, after her persistent pleas to be allowed to use the fitting rooms of her choice fell on deaf ears.
Afterwards she wrote a stinging letter to the Primark’s chief executive officer, Paul Marchant, over the incident.