The Mermaid community is made up of at least thousands of unique and wonderful individuals that live all over the world. This includes the Midwestern state of Kansas in the US. There are currently only two non private pools that allow individuals in Wichita to swim in their tails, one indoor and one outdoor. This means half of the year we are down to one- with the outdoor pools also affected by weather and tempuratures, that leaves us with over half the year down to that single indoor pool at our local recreation center. Due to the little education leading to massive amounts of misinformation on mermaid tails, and the swim experience needed to use them, many pools all over the world ban our tails making it harder for those of us that swim as a hobby, and for those who have made it their jobs and rely on public pools to practice and/or stay in shape in between gigs and for our mental health, because let's be honest, mermaiding feeds the soul, there's nothing else like it.

First and foremost, tails are not toys. By changing and allowing tails, we can educate our city's life guards AND pool goers of the seriousness of swimming in a tail, we can find respect for all swimmers, and a respect for a beautiful art form. We can work with the city aquatics branch to set in place rules to make sure all swimmers can share the pools, us landlocked mermaids get the much needed space we need to be able to do what we love, and we can educate fellow pool goers who are interested in the mermaid community who don't know where to start. 

Examples of rules that could be set in place;

1. The individual must show they can swim a standard lap (endurance swim) in the pool (50M) without touching the floor of the pool and without stopping.

2. The individual must be able to show they can float in place on their back, stomach, and tread water without touching the floor of the pool

3. The individual must have a swim partner, or "Mertender" with them at all times when swimming in a tail or monofin, and must show they can pass 1 and 2 above, and show they have communication (Hand signals) with the mermaid and will be able to react quickly if a situation arrises

4. If a pool is worried about having too many mermaids in the pool at one time, a pool can set in place a limit of how many mermids may be in the pool while in tail at a time. 

5. Have a safe to use mermiad tail and monofin (No bootlegs/overly damaged), and the individual must be willing to present their gear for clearence to use.

6. Children under a certain age (I.e. 10yo) cannot use a tail, but are allowed a monofin, and must be with a parent or guardian at all times, and cannot go under the water for more than 30 seconds at a time while wearing the monofin.

It is so important to break the stigma and fear around mermaid tails, and start treating them with the seriousness and respect they deserve. Mermaid tails are not and never will be toys, but do bring so much joy to those that wear them. It can also be a great form of exercise, an excellent way to get outside, and for many like myself, use it as a way to help their mental health. And not to mention the revenue it brings to the pools and city by allowing admission with our gear. The more we sit back and do nothing to make our voices heard, the more we will lose out on so many beautiful and amazing pools and community aquatic locations to do what makes us happy, and the more misinformation will spread, and lead to new mermaids- young and old- in the community getting hurt.