Transgenderism: the new feminist battleground

And the protestors are worried that admitting trans women into women's spaces would eventually open the door to all men.

One protestor Margaret Roberts, who has been using the pond for thirty-two years, said, "I and many others are threatened by having 'cross dressers' openly using our private space." She said she had been made to feel uncomfortable when she saw a "young man" using the ladies' pond while wearing a bikini and claiming to be transitioning for male to female.

Ms Roberts said that she had seen a Spanish looking man "who looked and dressed like a man but who claimed to identify as a woman" using the ladies' pond and when she asked him to leave, he refused.

The KLPA has a reply to these protesting women: "Although it is tempting to assume someone's gender simply by their appearance, it's important to try and avoid doing so and to be aware of the needs of the genuinely transgender women."

What the KLPA and the City of London as well for that matter prefer not to address is the tricky question of how can anybody tell if a man is "genuinely transgender" and not just an opportunistic dirty old man. Putting on a bikini is hardly certain and sure evidence.

But it is the protestors who are fighting a losing battle and all because of the Equalities Act 2010.

And while a man who has transitioned to a woman still requires a gender recognition certification for legal recognition as a woman, trans women using the ladies' pond do not need this certificate. The UK Labour Party is currently considering including trans women in all-women shortlists without any certificate as trans campaigners argue that the current need to be assessed and diagnosed by clinicians to obtain a certificate is intrusive and unnecessarily medical. The UK Government has also unveiled proposals to streamline the process to change gender and a round of consultations will happen later this year.

Meanwhile, despite all of the protests in the world, the Kenwood Ladies Pond Association and its pond will firmly remain, well, gender fluid.