B.C. government voices support for transgender woman denied access to women-only gym

Another Canadian trans issue has garnered international attention after B.C. transgender woman Brigid Klyne-Simpson told local media of being “extremely devastated” after being denied access to a women-only gym.

“It was important to me to be in a place that would be, like, explicitly accepting, like, ‘You are a woman, you’re allowed to be here,’” Klyne-Simpson said in an interview with CHEK News.

The gym in question is Bodyworks Fitness in Parksville, a Vancouver Island community of 14,000 located two hours’ north of Victoria, the provincial capital of British Columbia.

After being welcomed as a member, Klyne-Simpson was told to stick to the gym’s mixed-gender areas and not to use its women-only fitness centre and change rooms.

Speaking to CHEK News, owner Dale Nagra said Bodyworks has transgender clients, but that they’ve simply stuck to the co-ed gym.