Opinion: I’m thrilled Hampstead Ladies Pond will remain open to all

I’ve been swimming at the Hampstead Ladies Pond since I first arrived in London aged 16. What a haven it is. A slice of calm in what can be an overwhelming city.

Once through those iron gates – No Men Beyond This Point – there are no phones, no dogs, no children under eight years old.

It is a place where you can be yourself. One of the things I’ve come to love about it most – as I’ve moved from self-conscious teenager to pregnant wife to exhausted mother to overheated woman desperate for an ice-cold dip – is that I know that whatever state I’m in, I won’t be judged.

Congregating here is every kind of woman, from every race and background, differently abled, pierced, tattooed, waxed and hairy.

Many of the regulars are heading towards 90.

As they sit in the meadow, post swim, in groups or on their own, chatting, reading, breathing, they know that here at least they’re safe.

So how gratifying it is to read that the Kenwood Ladies Pond Association has issued a statement reminding everyone that transgender women have been swimming at the ponds for many years, without incident, and that the ever-vigilant lifeguards will continue to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all users.

Anyone who’s ever met these lifeguards will know that this is true.

It isn’t to say, of course, that there aren’t individuals who will have their own views about the Supreme Court ruling certifying that the term ‘woman’ refers only to a ‘biological woman,’ but for the moment there are no plans to change the rules that allow people of certified sex to enter through the gates.

In November last year I attended the funeral of a beautiful young girl, a child I’d known since they were born who left a note to say the world had become too cruel a place for her to live in, a girl who was born, 17 years earlier, biologically a boy.

By the time her mother found the note she’d taken her own life.

Let’s protect our inclusive spaces. Let’s remember above all, to be kind.

For help, visit samaritans.org

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