Multimillionaire businessman Duncan Bannatyne has pledged to delete ‘non-binary’ as an option on his new gym app.
When a gender-critical campaigner asked the former Dragons’ Den judge why his fitness app allowed people to identify as ‘non-binary’, Bannatyne said the option would be removed as soon as possible.
The businessman was a strong critic of Scottish Government plans to allow gender self-identification, which were eventually blocked by the Westminster Government on constitutional grounds.
Sex matters
Mary Howden, a Director of the Women’s Rights Network, posted on X: “Can you answer why Bannatyne’s new app asks for gender rather than sex and has 3 options you can choose from male, female and non-binary?”
She reminded Bannatyne that he had previously stated that “sex differences matter in fitness”.
The following day, he replied: “The non-binary option will be removed asap. Thank you for pointing this out to me.”
In April, Bannatyne welcomed the Supreme Court ruling that the definition of woman under the Equality Act 2010 is determined by biology not ideology. He remarked at the time: “No gym should ever allow men into women’s changing rooms”.
Regulatory action
Organisations with policies allowing people to use toilets based on gender self-identification have been instructed to remove or amend them by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
The watchdog is taking regulatory action against 19 organisations for wrongly suggesting that men and women who say they are transgender have a legal right to access single-sex spaces and services “according to their self-identified gender”.
Baroness Falkner, Chairwoman of the EHRC, said it acted where it had “identified policies that misrepresent the law”.
According to the regulator, the affected organisations — which span policing, education, healthcare and public services — “must respond with assurances that policies will be withdrawn” and “set out any proposed timetable to revise their policies”.
Navratilova: ‘Keep men out of women’s tennis’
Poll: Over half of adults back Supreme Court’s trans ruling
Scientist forced out of top-secret base over gender-critical views wins legal victory