Following the Supreme Court’s decision to make biological reality the premise upon which an individual’s sex is decided, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued interim guidance on how private and non-private institutions should accommodate trans people.
The EHRC said that the guidance was crucial following the ruling as a result of public uncertainty in regards to the ruling’s implications.
The guidance reiterated what the ruling has determined, namely that “trans women” are to be thought to be biological males and “trans men” are to be thought to be biological females.
The guidance states that workplaces are obliged “to supply sufficient single-sex toilets” and single-sex changing and washing facilities where applicable.
Services open to the general public, like hospitals and restaurants, are being advised that trans women mustn’t be permitted to make use of the women facilities and vice versa, as to accomplish that would effectively render the facilities open to all sexes.
The guidance added, though, that trans people mustn’t be put ready where there aren’t any facilities available to them and that there are some circumstances by which trans women might be barred from using male facilities.
Schools are required to supply single-sex toilets for girls and boys over the age of 8. Boys identifying as girls are usually not permitted to make use of the women’ toilets in schools and vice versa.
The EHRC also issued guidance on private associations, saying that groups of 25 or more people could be limited to men or women only. Associations may also be limited to individuals who have two “protected characteristics”.
The guidance reads, “It could be, for instance, for gay men only or lesbian women only. A women-only or lesbian-only association mustn’t admit trans women (biological men), and a men-only or gay men-only association mustn’t admit trans men (biological women).”
The EHRC noted that the guidance it provided was only an interim measure and that it hoped to supply an updated Code of Practice to the federal government by June. It also stated it could be releasing separate guidance on how the Supreme Court ruling will affect sport “sooner or later”.
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