Swedish swimming pool opens gender neutral changing rooms
A swimming pool has opened in Sweden that is specially designed to cater for the LGBT community.
The pool, in the Stockholm suburb of Sundbyberg, helps to cater specifically to transgender and LGB people.
In addition to having single-sex male and female changing rooms, the pool also has a third, gender-neutral block, to cater for people who might not feel comfortable in either.
Council spokesperson Fredrik Richard told The Local: “We did this because we wanted to be inclusive for everyone.
“People do not always feel comfortable visiting swimming pools and sport places and we hope this will give people more choice.
“This is the first sports building like this in Sweden and we are pleased we have had a lot of attention from SVT and major newspapers.”
Swimming pool manager Mikael Eljenmyr told broadcaster SVT: “I’ve learned a lot myself – about how I can behave more like a human being and provide better treatment in some ways that I didn’t think of before.”
Isander Freiman from rights group RFSL added: “The most important thing is that all people who want to, are able to come here and swim.
“I hope that the rest of Sweden will follow.”
Earlier today, department store Selfridges London announced plans to stop advertising clothing as ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ – and will stock a wider range of unisex clothes.
