Trans people urge watchdog to scrap 'bigoted' guidance

The equalities watchdog is under pressure to withdraw its interim guidance on single-sex spaces in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on gender, after campaigners dubbed it a bigoted attempt to segregate trans people in public spaces”.

- MILLIE COOKE POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been accused of breaching trans peoples’ rights, with campaigners saying it not only forces them into inappropriate spaces but it also risks outing them.

It comes after the Supreme Court ruled that trans women are not legally women under the Equalities Act, which means that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate”.

While gender critical campaigners have hailed the ruling as a victory for biological women, there are concerns it will put trans people at risk and exclude them from public life.

Interim guidance published by the equalities watchdog in the wake of the ruling says that trans women “should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities” in workplaces or publicfacing services like shops and hospitals.

But it also says that “in some circumstances the law also allows trans women (biological men) not to be permitted to use the men’s facilities, and trans men (biological women) not to be permitted to use the women’s facilities”.

It is unclear what these circumstances are or who is expected to make such decisions.

While the guidance adds that “trans people should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use”, trans activist and model Munroe Bergdorf dubbed it a “tool of humiliation designed with the intention of stoking the escalating flames of British transphobia”.

Meanwhile, Steph Richards, CEO of trans campaign group Translucent, told The Independent that the guidance is likely to force trans people to out themselves, which she said would be in breach of article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to respect for private life.