It has been a year and a half

Jeez, it only took them a year and a half. Lightning speed.

NHS bosses will finally tell hospitals they must stop letting trans women onto female wards 18 months after a landmark court ruling.

Under new guidance to be published later today, staff will be required to accommodate patients according to their biological sex.

Why only now? Why did it take so long?

Separate new guidelines, also to be published today, will make clear that staff must use single sex changing rooms and toilets that align with their biological sex.

Female nurses have previously told of their unease at being forced to undress in front of transgender colleagues.

In front of male colleagues. The issue is the maleness, not the transness.

Mind you, it could be that both are issues. The “trans” part is a sign of at least credulity, and at worst seriously disordered thinking. I wouldn’t much like to work around a colleague who was either that self-centered or that fatuous.

NHS England will write to NHS trusts and integrated care boards to inform them of the new guidelines and require chief executives and boards to take action.

The changes follow the Supreme Court’s ruling in April 2025 that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex, and subsequent guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

They “follow” the ruling from very very far away.

Former health secretary Wes Streeting had promised to publish revised NHS guidelines by summer 2025 but it has been a year and a half since the court ruling. 

He said at the time: ‘I do think biological same–sex spaces are really important, particularly for women and for women’s safety, but we also need to make sure that we’re providing dignity and care and compassion and respect for trans people.’

It’s not even really “respect” for trans people to humor their delusions or their games of let’s pretend. More to the point, it violates dignity and care and respect for everyone else.

The whole thing is like a parody of previous campaigns for equality and respect. Women, people of color, workers really have long been exploited, ignored, treated with contempt. People who claim to be the other sex, not so much.

Responding to the Supreme Court ruling, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘We are proud to be one of the UK’s leading providers of gender affirming services.

‘As such, our unwavering commitment and support for trans+ and non-binary service users and staff remains the same.

‘We will continue to respect and uphold our service users’ right to self-identify 

Stop right there, in the middle of the sentence. There is no such thing as a right to self-identify. The reason is obvious, or rather the reasons are obvious. Bank accounts, for instance. Job titles. Access. Criminal records. Parentage. We can take people at face value for some purposes but not all purposes. It’s childish to pretend otherwise. Sex is very much on the no side of those purposes. No. We need to know whether you’re female or male; we don’t have to play your silly game along with you.