WHEN Belinda Zipper revealed her “true self” to her young children, she never expected this response.

“Dad, you’ve had dresses in the house and haven’t told me?!” her daughter said. “You’re going to look beautiful.”

Her son responded simply: “What’s for dinner?”

It was the best possible outcome, but the 47-year-old knows not everybody has the insight and understanding kids have.

It’s why despite dressing and identifying as a woman in public, there are some things she won’t do. Some places she won’t go. One of those places is the swimming pool.

Two years ago she bought two-piece bathers hoping she’d find the courage to wear them in public. But they’ve been gathering dust ever since.

“I haven’t been swimming as my female self ever,” Ms Zipper told news.com.au. “Swimming is a particularly difficult one. Bathers are very difficult — you’re wearing tight clothes that are very revealing of your body underneath.

“I’m not trying to pass as a female, but I want to look OK. If I’m uncomfortable, other people are uncomfortable, and I don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable.”

Next weekend she’ll slip on the bathers and dive head first in to a Greens council-led gender-diverse swim night. The event, hosted by the City of Darebin, will take place after-hours at Reservoir Leisure Centre in Melbourne’s north and will be closed to the public. Those who identify as transgender will be allowed in, as will their children.

Organisers say it’s about “providing indoor pools where trans and gender diverse people can exercise, socialise and feel safe”. They say it’s the first event of its kind in Victoria but the idea has proven controversial and divisive.

Comments online include: “Isn’t this division, disunity and discrimination” and: “PC gone mad! Melbourne has been overrun by left wing garbage.”

Evan Mulholland from the Institute of Public Affairs told the Herald Sun the idea was “segregating constituents”.

“Left-wing councils like Darebin like to talk a lot about equality, but in reality what they are doing is segregating their constituents,” he said.

“All ratepayers should be treated equally and be given equal access regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or background.”

Groups supporting traditional marriage unsurprisingly criticised organisers but those attending say it’s about time.

“This is fantastic,” Ms Zipper wrote on the event’s Facebook page. “I have been too scared to go swimming as my real female self. Terribly scared actually.”

She told news.com.au she’d be “petrified” to go swimming at a public pool during normal opening hours.

She says she understands why some people are upset, but wants them to think about it from a different perspective.

“I hear what people are saying, I can see how easily people can find it divisive but we need to understand some people have different needs and special needs. I totally understand it but if we have a bit of Aussie fair-go attitude it’ll go a long way. We’re not asking for the pool every day.”

Ms Zipper has known since she was in primary school that she was born in to a body she did not identify with. She says it was a different world growing up in the ’80s and ’90s.

“I was too scared to talk about it to anyone,” she said.

“I explored my trans identity in the ’90s and found it a very hostile world. About four years ago I reawakened my trans self and have been living that way full-time for two years.”

She hopes Darebin Council’s lead on providing same spaces for the trans community is adopted by others. She says it’s a sign of the times.

“It’s the Aussie way. I don’t want to take over the world. I just want a little bit of space,” Ms Zipper said.

Darebin Council has made a long-term commitment to equality and inclusion for people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer. The council made headlines in January when it voted to scrap a citizenship ceremony on Australia Day.

Darebin followed the City of Yarra to become the second Victorian council to do so.

Email: rohan.smith1@news.com.au | @ro_smith