Well ok if you insist, but you can’t enforce it.
New government guidance has said that transgender people should not be asked what sex they are before they use toilets or changing rooms.
But what if it’s a man using a women’s toilet or changing room? Are women just supposed to shrug and give up?
The long-awaited updated code of practice, from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), confirms that single-sex space facilities in businesses and public buildings must be used based on biological sex.
However, it also warns firms that it would not be “practical or appropriate” for staff to challenge individuals they suspected were using the wrong lavatory or changing room.
So…we’re right back where we started, but with a little ribbon on top. Yes you can have your spaces for women, but no you can’t tell a man to get out. Contradiction much?
The EHRC guidance, approved by Bridget Phillipson, the minister for women and equalities, was published on Thursday…
Under the guidelines, businesses and public bodies must ensure that toilets, changing facilities and sports teams are segregated based on biological sex and not gender identity.
The code makes clear that transgender people should instead be offered a third or gender-neutral space. Leaving a trans person without access to any facilities or services would be unlikely to be proportionate and could be discriminatory, the guidance warns.
But a trans person in that scenario would have access to the facilities for her/his sex. It does not leave a trans person without access to any facilities.
The guidance states: “It is unlikely to be either practical or appropriate to approach any particular individual to make enquiries about their sex in relation to facilities, such as toilets, which are incidental to the primary service.”
Notice how this casually makes the victim the aggressor. The man in the women’s toilet is the one who has done the inappropriate “approaching” here. We do get to tell him to get out, and raise the alarm if he refuses.
The code also says that if “individuals are asked about their sex in a way that requires them to disclose this information in public, or if the language or manner of a request is rude, combative or offensive”, this could be deemed as “discrimination or harassment”.
Men intruding in women’s toilets are being rude, combative and offensive, and they are the ones doing the harassing.
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of women’s rights charity Sex Matters, said: “The guidance could be clearer that service providers are entitled to ask people to state their sex, and to require an honest answer.
“It’s absurd to say that it is ‘unlikely to be either practical or appropriate’ to ask an individual what sex they are in relation to facilities such as toilets: on the contrary, if a man walks into a women’s space it will be not just appropriate to challenge him, but essential.
“Otherwise women’s rights to single-sex spaces cannot be enforced.”
Precisely.
A source close to the minister said: “Bridget believes firmly in the importance of protecting single sex spaces for women, but this can be done in a way that ensures dignity for trans people too: it is not an either-or.
“Bridget has ignored the frothing on both sides of the culture war and encouraged EHRC to focus on what matters: the dignity of everyone in our country. She will take no lectures on the rights of women just as she will never punch down on any minority.”
No, she’ll just punch down on women from her position as a government minister.
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