Diversity & Inclusion in Out to Swim
Out To Swim is an inclusive aquatic club and welcomes everyone who wants to participate in our disciplines, whether that be water polo, synchronised swimming or swimming. While we operate as an LGBTQ+ charity, we recognise that even within our community we need to do better at being inclusive across a myriad of individualities and stigmas including, but not limited to, gender, ethnicity, disability, age, and religion.
We are not the perfect organisation, but we continuously strive to create an inclusive and welcoming culture within OTS and if you think there is something we can do better, please reach out inclusion@outtosim.org to us.
Gender
OTS welcomes all genders and have daily mixed-gender sessions. Recognising the disparity in the proportion of male swimmers to female swimmers in the swimming discipline, there is also a dedicated Women’s only swim session at the Oasis Sports Centre at 7pm on a Thursday evening.
Members of the trans community are certainly welcome within our club across any discipline. We recognise that you may face additional barriers to participating in water-based activities and have included in various sections of this page information which may be relevant to you when deciding whether to join OTS. However, if there if any additional concerns you may have or questions please get in touch.
Please click here see a message from the Trustees regarding the High Court rulling in April 2025.
Ethnicity
Out To Swim welcomes members from all races and socio-economic backgrounds. We have a diverse membership in our club and are open to all who wish to join.
We pride ourselves in being the only LGBTQ+ Masters club offering lessons through to training for international competitions across all our disciplines and welcome all levels of ability.
We have recently started a semi-regular BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) session at the Oasis Centre at 8pm on Monday evenings. These will be available to book using our booking system. If you’d like to participate in them, please let your Reps know.
Age
As a Masters Aquatics Club, our sessions are open to all adults above the age of 18. Specifically, in the swimming discipline, members are placed in groups based on their overall swimming ability to ensure a productive swim for all members. Water polo fields teams of mixed age, abilities, gender, and trains as a group. Similarly, within synchronised swimming, members of various ages and abilities are encouraged to participate and compete.
We currently offer a monthly session for our “wiser” swimmers, which we have affectively dubbed the Vintage Group.
The group traditionally swims on the first Monday of each month. Keep an eye out on the booking system, for when the next session will be.
Disability
Out to Swim recognises that disabled people often face a multitude of barriers to joining a sports team, especially those in the intersection of LGBTQ+. We have a number of disabled swimmers in the club, although the majority are non-disabled. Disabled members are welcome to join the club and participate in all disciplines, training sessions and competitions.
Our head coach is a former Paralympic coach and would be happy to discuss your needs, and all our coaches have had relevant training to make you feel welcome.
Additional Information
Pronouns
We try to ask people their pronouns as well as their name when they come to their first session, but not all members remember. Similarly, we encourage our coaches to use gender agnostic language in our training sessions. If you find it difficult to correct people, you can ask a coach to listen out and correct people as it happens, or to make a general announcement if you want that. We have team members who use they/them pronouns and members are accepting and supportive.
Swimwear
Members are free to participate in whatever swimwear they find comfortable (e.g., trunks, swimming briefs, jammers, one-piece suits, 2-piece suits, rash vests, etc.). It is advised that baggy clothing will be much more tiring to swim in, and may be prohibited in certain pools.
Our water polo club ‘London Orca’ runs alongside the swim club. Several polo players participate in swim training too. All training is mixed gender, and members are free to wear what they like to training, although if it’s baggy it will likely be used by your opponents for their advantage!
Competing
Swimming Competitions: OTS participates in numerous competitions at a local, national, and international level. Swimming competitions are generally conducted under Swim England’s rules (or equivalent when abroad).
According to Swim England, only individuals assigned female at birth can participate in the Female category. Everyone else can participate in the Open/Male category.
We understand this may be frustrating to trans members and our gender-diverse community, but unfortunately we need to comply with these regulations when competing.
OTS also participates in LGBTQ+ competitions (including our own GLLAM) which, depending on local swim rules, allows swimmers to compete under their identified gender, as well as running mixed-gender races.
However, if swimmers wish to have these events recognised nationally, their results may be “converted” to local results, which will have to comply with local gender rules.
Water Polo Competitions: London Orca is part of the Champagne league which sees 3 - 4 tournaments each year hosted by our sibling clubs around Europe. All teams are mixed ability and gender for these tournaments with no specific requirements on numbers as long as we have enough players for a team! We are mostly there for fun so whatever your ability, you’ll still get time in the pool. We also send a competitive team or two for players who would like to take it a bit more seriously.
Orca has 1 women’s and 2 men’s teams that compete in the London Summer and Winter leagues.
These competitions are regulated by Swim England, and they have to comply with the same gender restrictions as swimming events.
Artistic swimming competitions: OTS Angels compete at a range of competitions at local, national and international level, including LGBT+ competitions. Whilst artistic swimming has historically been a women’s only sport, the Angels are at the forefront of gender inclusivity within UK Masters. Some of our members have even been in the news or participated in movies about mixed gender or Men’s artistic swimming events.
We enter mixed gender routines wherever the competition’s governing body allows. Many of the competitions are run under Swim England rules, which follow the same restrictions on gender as swimming competitions.
The Angels also have a strong emphasis on synchro for all abilities, and ensure we enter routines of varying difficulties, to suit our members’ range of abilities. We recognise that not everyone learning synchro has the desire to compete and there is no pressure for any of our members to do so. We do welcome all our members to come along to support those competing, so they still have the opportunity to enjoy the competition atmosphere.
Pool Information & Changing Facilities
We mostly use local/council pools. Each pool have their own gender, inclusion and accessiblity restrictions and we encourage our members to inform themselves of these. Some pools have mixed changing rooms and some are fully accessible. Unfortunately though, most have single gender changing rooms/toilets and are may not be fully accessible. Whilst we’d love to swim only in gender inclusive and accessible pools, we are restricted in the facilities we can use, due to pool capacity in the UK.
Whilst we appreciate members’ wish to use the facilities that match their gender identity, we recognise that sometimes they may be challenged and they have the club’s support to resolve any disputes.