Primark gives staff trans-inclusive fitting room advice

Primark has advised staff to let transgender customers use which ever fitting room they feel most comfortable in.

The store has issued guidance on how best to serve its trans clientele in a new handbook which is being given to its retail staff.

The handbook – which was obtained by PinkNews – reads: “Customers should be comfortable when they try anything on so transgender people may use whichever fitting room they choose.

“When in doubt it’s pretty easy to know what to do – just give the same level of great service to everyone!”

A spokesperson for the chain told the site: “It is Primark policy to allow all transgender customers to use the fitting rooms of their choice in Primark stores. As you can imagine all our staff are trained on this.”

The news comes just weeks after a transgender woman claimed she was refused entry into the female changing rooms at the retailer’s Ipswich store, according to The Mirror.

26-year-old Joni Bendall said that a shop assistant informed her the men’s changing rooms were upstairs when she went to try on some clothes.

She said: “I paused to take a breath and said: ‘I’m not a man’. And the assistant turned around and kept folding clothes.

“This time I turned to the assistant and I said, ‘I know this is awkward for you but I would like to use the changing rooms like any other woman’, and they just ignored me.

“I ended up leaving the shop, it made me feel dysphoric and it made me very aware of being the way I am, which is not very pleasant sometimes.”

Meanwhile, lingerie and underwear retailer Bravissimo has announced plans to hold its first-ever bra-fitting event tailored to trans and non-binary people – click here to find out more.

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