NHS hospitals will still allow biological men who are transgender to use female-only wards and lavatories despite a Supreme Court ruling against the practice, The Telegraph can disclose.
West London NHS Trust has instructed patients that they can use single-sex facilities based on their “legal gender”.
That’s not what the Supreme Court said but oh well, who cares about silly old laws, eh? Just do whatever you want all the time.
Critics say the new policy is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling that the term “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex. This has been widely interpreted as meaning that people who were born men should not be allowed to use female facilities.
On account of how female facilities are for female people and men are not female people. How many trillion times do we have to say this before it sinks in?
Claire Coutinho, the shadow equalities minister, said it was “astonishing that an NHS trust has adopted this unlawful policy”.
“Biological males must not be allowed into single-sex female spaces, but more than a year on from the Supreme Court ruling, the Government has completely failed to get a grip on public services that are still flouting the law,” she said.
“Many women and girls in hospital will be particularly vulnerable and need to know that their safety and privacy is being protected. The Health Secretary must demand the immediate withdrawal of this policy, and issue the new national guidance that is more than a year overdue.”
Oh let’s not be hasty here. It’s only women. How about we go on letting men go wherever they want for now, and maybe we can take another look in a century or two.
Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at Sex Matters, said the policy was “doing everything in its power to circumvent the law on single-sex spaces”.
“The term ‘legal gender’ has no basis in law or medicine, and it’s extraordinary that NHS bosses at West London think that they can test the law by writing rules using bogus terminology,” she said.
“A patient or staff member could have a good case if they decided to challenge the trust in court. But it shouldn’t take legal action by individuals for public institutions to ignore demands from trans activists and fulfil their legal obligations.
“If this policy is permitted to stand, other NHS trusts across the UK may follow suit. The sooner NHS England brings out a revised policy that complies with equality law and protects sex-based rights, the better.”
How about July 2076? Are you busy that month?
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