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Lingerie retailer Bravissimo to allow people who identify as transgender to try on their products in changing rooms

The move comes as other lingerie retailers are also eliminating single-sex facilities
UPDATED FEB 18, 2020
(Source: Getty Images)
(Source: Getty Images)

In a bid to promote LGBTQ+ inclusivity, a lingerie retailer will now allow those who identify as a transgender person to also try on their products in their changing rooms. Bravissimo, a company based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, which currently has 29 stores across the United Kingdom and employs 850 people, confirmed the move in a statement to The Sun.

"When people who identify as transgender or non-binary come into our stores for a bra fitting, we welcome these customers into our fitting rooms," the company said.

The move comes as other lingerie retailers are also eliminating single-sex facilities. Department stores such as Harrods -- a 170-year-old company which is the largest department store in Europe  -- and Selfridges -- a 111-year-old company -- as well as a host of other outlets, have previously scrapped single-sex changing areas.

While the move has been heralded by certain quarters, there have been others that have been critical of it. The biggest one has been the LGB Alliance, which touts itself as an ally to the community, but has been criticized as being transphobic for its exclusion of transgender people.

When it formed last month, the group said its mission was to "counteract the confusion between sex and gender which is now widespread in the public sector and elsewhere."

Speaking about the move by the lingerie retailers, Kate Harris, of the LGB Alliance said, "Any man who says he is a woman can enter any changing room previously reserved for women." "Has anyone asked teenage girls, or their mothers, who are going off to Topshop on a Saturday whether they want to share their changing rooms with full-bodied men?" she continued. "Or older women or Muslim women or any woman at all?"

However, store owners brushed aside the criticism and pointed out they had individual cubicles for changing rooms. Harrods also said its gender-neutral rooms were introduced as a result of a policy advised upon by their LGBTQ+ employee network.

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