Female protesters break into a men-only lido and leap into the pool as they claim to ‘self-identify as male’… for the day

May 29, 2018 by Jill

By Isabella Fish and Joani Walsh, Mailonline:

They didn’t look like men and they didn’t sound like men – but these women insisted they had every right to swim in a male-only pool.

Tempers were as hot as the weather yesterday as they arrived en masse and jumped in to the water as part of a protest against proposed gender laws.

One put on a bushy beard while another swam in a lime mankini – a joke male version of a bikini – to make their point that they ‘identified’ as men.

But regulars at the men’s bathing pond in Hampstead, North London, didn’t see the funny side.

And neither did the police who arrived and escorted the women out amid fears that they could be breaching the peace.

The invasion was part of a nationwide campaign set up on Mumsnet called #ManFriday which encourages women to ‘self-identify’ as men for the day on Fridays in a protest against possible changes to gender laws.

Campaigners say changes to the Gender Recognition Act could enable people to simply declare themselves to be a man or woman to get all the legal rights of either sex.

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