Toilets, changing rooms: The British regulator in charge of equality has published new provisional directives on the use of non-imitated spaces in the United Kingdom, after the Supreme Court’s decision to found the legal definition of a woman on biological sex.
In accordance with this judgment which arouses the concern of transgender people, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (EHRC) stipulates that now, a “transgender woman is a biological man” and “a transgender man is a biological woman” with regard to the law.
Consequently, “transgender women (organic men) should not be authorized to use the services reserved for women”, in stores, restaurants or hospitals, she believes.
This also applies to transgender men in the services and spaces reserved for men.
However, “transgender people should not find themselves in a situation where they have no service at their disposal,” adds the EHRC, which notably advocates the addition of mixed toilets.
“Logical consequence”
“This is the logical consequence of the decision” of the Supreme Court, reacted Sunday on the BBC Pat McFadden, a senior government official, while ensuring that there would be no “toilet police” to watch over the application.
The magistrates of the highest judicial body of the country unanimously ruled on April 16 that “the terms + woman + and + + sex + in the 2010 equality law refer to a biological woman and a biological sex”.
They said it is legal to exclude transgender women from certain spaces reserved for women – such as accommodation centers or in hospitals – if considered “proportionate”.
At school, “students who identify themselves as transgender girls (organic boys) should not be allowed to use the toilets or changing rooms of girls”, and vice versa, adds this commission.
In addition, “an exclusively female or lesbian association should not accommodate trans women (biological men),” she says.
In sport
Other directives on the inclusion of transgender people in competition sports must be published soon by this commission.
A consultation of the “stakeholders concerned” will take place in May, and the EHRC says it wants to submit a code of practices up to the government at the end of June.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, believing that it brought “clarity”, while returning to comments made in 2022 saying that “transgender women are women”.
