The new EHRC code isn’t just about trans people’s access to toilets – it’s about protecting other vital single-sex spaces | Susanna Rustin
From the start, feminists have fought for spaces that are less visible but which have special status: prisons, refuges, rape crisis centres, lesbian groups, women’s health centres and sports
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Susanna Rustin is the author of Sexed: A History of British Feminism
Thirteen months after the UK supreme court delivered its landmark ruling that sex in the Equality Act refers to biological sex, and 10 days after an updated draft “code of practice” from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was laid before parliament, the UK is once again rowing about single-sex spaces, and particularly toilets. Once again, the purpose and value of those spaces for women are at risk of being eclipsed by complaints from people who would prefer that they didn’t exist in a way that complies with the current law. The code confirms that there is no legal way to open a single-sex service to people of the other sex, even if they are trans. Organisations are told to address the likely disadvantage to trans people by offering alternative, mixed-sex facilities. Associations (membership organisations with rules) can be trans-inclusive if they want, as long as they do not claim to be single-sex. Bridget Phillipson, the women and equalities minister, said that avoiding any new “burden on business” was one of the reasons why the revised guidance has taken more than a year to arrive.
The angry reaction from trans rights groups was expected. “Bathroom bans”, in the US phrase, are a totemic issue. Public toilets are the only single-sex space that most of us encounter on a daily basis. Trans campaigners see the guidance as a mandate to exclude them from ordinary life. But for entry to single-sex spaces, the criteria must be sex, and the code is clear that any checks – for example, if a trans man were to be mistaken for a biological man in a women’s health setting – must be made “sensitively” to avoid discrimination or harassment.
Susanna Rustin is a social affairs journalist and the author of Sexed: A History of British Feminism
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المصدر: The Guardian — Commentisfree