Cat Burns and woman with alopecia speak out after being challenged in female toilets
Burns and Helen Rowlands were separately told by members of the public and staff that they were in the wrong bathroom
By Aaron Sugg
Cat Burns and a woman with alopecia have spoken out after being challenged over their use of female toilets, following the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) guidance on single-sex spaces.
Burns and Helen Rowlands were separately told by members of the public and staff that they were in the wrong bathroom.
The EHRC guidance concerns how service providers should apply the April 2025 Supreme Court ruling, which defined what it means to be a “woman” by biological sex.
What does the EHRC guidance on single-sex spaces say?
It explicitly states that it is unlikely to be “practical or appropriate to approach any particular individual to make enquiries about their sex in relation to facilities, such as toilets”.
Burns recalled the incident on social media, where she addressed an elderly woman who accused her of being in the wrong toilet at a pub.
“Where does it stem from?” said the singer in a social media video. “We know where it stems from,” she added.
Cat Burns reacts after being accused of being in the wrong toilet
“For the first two seconds, I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ I was in shock. And then the last two seconds, I was like [pulls face].”
Burns said the woman apologised to her. “It’s not on,” she added. “Because as a cis woman, this is why we say trans rights are human rights. It affects all of us.”
“Because then you have people walking around toilets, walking back and forth, deciding who can go in and out. Toilet police.”
“I’m dressed in my comfies and she’s telling me I don’t look like a woman. I don’t look like I should be in here. Let’s really think about what we’re doing here.”
Woman with alopecia accused of being in the wrong toilet
Another incident occurred at Tesco Extra in Trinity Square, Gateshead, when Helen Rowlands, who has alopecia, was told by a staff member that she was in the wrong toilet.
Her husband, Duncan, spoke to the store manager about the comment, and they reportedly apologised.
Speaking to Chronicle Live, Rowlands recalled the incident, which would leave her in tears: “I went to go to the toilet in Tesco and, as I was coming out of the toilet, the cleaner shouted after me. She said something along the lines of, ‘Are you aware you’re in the female toilet?’
Helen Rowlands says she was “gobsmacked”
“I was just completely gobsmacked. She was accusing me of being male in the female toilet.
“I didn’t know what to do or say. It just completely took me off guard. I think she realised she had made a mistake, as she started saying there had been men in the previous week.”
Rowlands said the incident left her feeling humiliated and self-conscious, and that she felt degraded by the member of staff.