Trans people may be barred from using public toilets or getting changed based on ‘how they look’, a leaked guidance document says.
In April, the Supreme Court ruled that trans people do not meet the definition of ‘woman’ under anti-discrimination law.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it will write guidance for organisations that run gendered spaces to reflect this.
A leaked copy of the watchdog’s guidance, obtained by The Times, says hospital wards, gyms and leisure centres can turn trans people away ‘based on how they look, their behaviour or concerns raised by others’.
According to the paper, the guidance states that trans men would be barred from women’s spaces if they are likely to be perceived as male, even if they were assigned male at birth.
Equality officials say in the reported guidance it would not be ‘proportionate’ to leave trans people without essential services.
Neither would it be ‘practical’ for people to demand ‘evidence of a person’s sex’, such as a gender recognition certificate, which earlier reports suggested the EHRC would advise.
The paper allows a trans person to update the gender on their birth certificate – trans people are not required to have the document, and just 8,000 of the roughly 262,000 trans people in the UK have one.
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EHRC officials handed the now leaked guidance to ministers three months but it has yet to be published.
Trans rights campaigners have for weeks expressed concerns that the advice will treat them as ‘second-class citizens’.
And such worries have not been eased with the leaked guidance, trans campaigner Felix Fern told Metro.
‘The leaked guidance confirms what we already know, which is that the UK is leaning in the direction of trying to slowly push trans people out of existence in public spaces until they’re no longer safe to leave their homes,’ Fern said.
‘But it also represents a wider policing of one’s physical appearance that will endanger the wider general public.’
Fern pointed to instances of women who are cisgender – whose gender identity aligns with their assigned sex – being harassed for not looking ‘feminine’ enough.
Cis women worldwide have been killed, beaten and fired from their jobs by people who ‘accused’ them of being trans, such as because they are tall.
Similar incidents in the UK have increased since the Supreme Court judgment, according to research by TransActual. Such as gender non-conforming and masculine women being asked, ‘Are you supposed to be here?’ when using women’s toilets, the group found.
‘We cannot believe that government would be so foolish – so hell-bent on shooting itself in the foot – as to go along with this,’ the group told Metro.
‘We therefore trust that Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson will treat it with the contempt it deserves and reject this costly, cruel and unworkable guidance, sending it back to the EHRC to be completely rewritten.’
Jess O’Thompson, trans rights lead at the Good Law Project, told the Metro that the EHRC guidance, if legitimate, could be ‘unlawful’.
The Supreme Court ruling was on the Equality Act, which shields trans people from discrimination as they fall under the ‘gender reassignment’ characteristic.
EHRC guidance, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, is not the law – it is an interpretation of legislation.
‘Policing toilet access based on appearance is not just a violation of trans people’s rights, but also dangerously misogynistic,’ O’Thompson, a legal researcher, said.
‘The EHRC claim to be protecting women’s rights, but policing toilets just leads to increased violence against women and girls.’
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said she would go through the guidance ‘thoroughly and carefully’.
She added to reporters today: ‘I have responsibilities to make sure that’s done properly and we’re taking the time to get this right.
‘This is an important area and we want to make sure that women have access to a single-sex provision – that’s incredibly important for domestic violence services, rape crisis centres, so that women are able to heal from the trauma they’ve experienced.
‘But of course, trans people should be treated with dignity and respect.’
The EHRC has been approached for comment.
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