so much Berlin

Berlin clarifies gender equality rules for topless bathing

When Lotte Mies went topless at an indoor swimming pool in the Berlin district of Kaulsdorf last December, she was asked to either cover her chest or leave the pool. The 33-year-old activist had already called ahead to check with staff that she could go topless and was told it would not be a problem. But when she refused to cover up, the police were called and Mies was forced to leave.

"It was more than humiliating for me that day and it really wasn't nice to be treated like a second-class citizen on the basis of my gender and not to be able to decide for myself how to [present] my own body," Mies told DW.

"I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that: 'No, I don't want to ashamed of my breasts anymore, it's actually not in order,'" Mies told DW. "This permanent sexualization that we are exposed to, and it's not just about breasts, I just don't want to accept it anymore."

Mies filed a complaint with the ombudsman's office responsible for compliance with Berlin's Anti-Discrimination Act, a law that was introduced in the state of Berlin in June 2020 and is the first of its kind in Germany. The General Equal Treatment Act, which covers the whole of Germany, forbids discrimination in labor and civil law contexts. Berlin's Anti-Discrimination Act extends this existing law to guard against discrimination in the public sector.

The Berliner Bäderbetriebe, the capital's municipal swimming pool operator, never had a gender-specific dress code, only a general rule mandating "customary bathing attire" for both men and women which left it down to staff at each pool to interpret what this actually meant. Now, in response to the public outcry over Mies' case, the pool operator has issued a clarification to ensure that women can go topless at public pools just the same as men.

...