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“We need clear conversations and proper debate about what the law and policy actually mean in practice, and what would be the practical effect of any changes – dialogue must be constructive, tolerant and based on the facts. This includes challenging prejudices, calling out abusive behaviour and being open about the rights and needs of everyone involved.”

Rebecca Hillsenrath, CEO, EHRC

The Equality Act 2010 provides protection against discrimination for people who have the protected characteristic “gender reassignment” (broadly: being transgender), such as in the workplace, in housing, transport and other services.

It was never intended that this general protection should mean people gain the right to access to single sex services for the opposite sex, such as males having access to specialist services for women, and their children, who have been the victim of sexual and domestic violence.

The need for women’s refuges, rape crisis centres and counselling services to be female-only is not only so that women can be safe, but so that they can feel safe, and be centred and supported in their own recovery.

As Karen Ingala Smith, Director of the charity nia writes, part of the role of these services is to help women to learn to trust themselves again:

“Women are gas-lighted (manipulated to question their own judgement or even sanity) by their abusive male partners all the time. It is a cornerstone of coercive control. As a service provider you are in a position of power, no matter how you try to balance this out, and of course we do as much as possible to balance this out, but ultimately it is inescapable. You are not offering a trauma informed environment if you, in your position of power, gaslight traumatised women and pretend that someone that you both really know is a man, is actually a woman.  It is furthering the abuse to then expect women to share what you say is women-only space with males who say that they are women, because you and they know are not.”

Karen Ingala-Smith, Director, nia

The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s role is to promote the implementation of the Equality Act 2010. They are in a position of power and responsiblity. They should be standing behind service providers explaining that the law allows for single sex services, which means that males, whatever they wear, and however they identify, can be told politely and clearly “no” (and may need to be able to access alternative provision).

If they wanted to know what female victim-survivors think why not instead ask service users themselves ?

Instead EHRC commissioned general population survey research from the National Centre for Social Research which they published a report on yesterday.

The survey showed that most people in the UK say they are not prejudiced against transgender people and they think prejudice is wrong.

This would seem like good news.

But the EHRC is concerned that fewer, and falling numbers of people think that this means that males who identify as women should be allowed into women’s refuges.

The EHRC’s think it is not positive, inclusive, or supportive. It is possibly even transphobic:

“Although it is clear that we are progressing towards being a more inclusive and understanding society, these findings show that when probed, people were found to be less supportive of trans people in specific situations….The vast majority of British people believe transphobia is wrong. We need to understand some of the shifts, though, such as the slight reduction in support for access by trans people to some services.”

Rebecca Hilsenrath, CEO, Equality and Human Rights Commission

Nancy Kelley of Stonewall (who lead the research for this study in her previous role at the National Centre for Social Research) is clear that people who say no to males in women’s refuges are wrong. She calls the survey results “a worrying downward trend” driven by “extreme anti-trans view”.

Leading questions

It is very clear what the EHRC, NatCen and Stonewall thought should be the right answer in this survey. The survey design guides people towards it.

Lets walk through the survey.

First it asks people to agree to a very broad definition of transgender:

“People who are transgender have gone through all or part of a process (including thoughts or actions) to change the sex they were described as at birth to the gender they identify with, or intend to. This might include by changing their name, wearing different clothes, taking hormones or having gender reassignment surgery.”

Natcen/EHRC definition of transgender, as used in the survey

Those who have been paying attention to the sex-and-gender debates will recognise this as an articulation of the broad definition of the protected characteristic gender reassignment from the Equality Act 2010 s.7. People who meet this definition should not be discriminated against or harassed because of it, but it does not mean that someone has changed sex.

Those who haven’t been paying attention (i.e. most people answering the survey) will find this definition completely incomprehensible — how can you change a sex to a gender? What kind of surgery are they talking about? Are they really saying “wearing different clothes” changes something fundamental about a person?

These are all perplexing and embarrassing questions, and the interviewer doesn’t have the answer. Just click ‘1’ and move on.

Next the interviewer asks them:

Thinking about the reasons why transgender people have gone
through this process, please tell me whether you agree or disagree
with the following statement “Most people who are transgender have gone through this process because of a very superficial and temporary need?

Natcen survey question

How on earth can this question be answered meaningfully? “This process” as previously defined can range from thinking about changing clothing style to having surgery. Surely the motivations across such a wide range of people will differ? And anyway on what basis can the person on the doorstep know about the psychological state of strangers?

Still it has to be answered (only 24% of people declined to), and people have probably half forgotten the broad criteria they’ve just agreed to, so the person constructs their own ad-hoc idea of a meaningful transition and gives an answer.

Next they are asked would you describe yourself as as very prejudiced against people who are transgender, a little prejudiced, or, not prejudiced at all? Of course, most people answer not prejudiced.

Then a question on toilets and then the question on women’s refuges. Both these questions define a “transgender woman” like this:

“A transgender woman: A man who has gone through all or part of a process to become a woman.”

Definition of “transgender woman” used by Natcen/EHRC in their survey.

This definition says that a man “becomes a woman” as soon as they undertake any part of the vaguely defined process of thinking about or actually “changing their name, wearing different clothes, taking hormones or having reassignment surgery.”

The person-on-the-doorstep may not spot this.

They are being asked about a “transgender woman”; so they think about someone who is, in some sense, a woman. Perhaps they imagine that there is some official criteria involved. It surely can’t mean a man who has decided to wear different clothes?

But they have already probably agreed that the process (whatever it is) does not reflect “a very superficial and temporary need” and declared themself not to be prejudiced, so it would be rude to ask questions at this point in answering what is anyway only a hypothetical question in an hour long survey.

So 51% of them say yes they feel comfortable that a “woman” who is transgender (under the very broad definition which includes someone who looks absolutely like any other man) should be allowed into a woman’s refuge.

EHRC commissioned these questions.

EHRC know that sex is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act.

EHRC knows that a man who goes through all or part of the process which is defined under the protected characteristic gender reassignment does not become a woman. Legally they remain a man.

EHRC’s whose one job is to promote the Equality Act 2010, to protect everyone’s rights has used their power, resources and legitimacy to try to manipulate public opinion to pressure and label victims of male violence who want a female-only environment as transphobic. This is not the basis for a constructive, tolerant, pragmatic discussions. This is abuse.

“We think there should be guidance providing more clarity on how single-sex services should work in practice to make sure the law is understood by service users and service providers without ambiguity”

Rebecca Hilsenrath, Chief Executive, Equality and Human Rights Commission

Everyone agrees that clear guidance is needed on the law on single and separate sex services. The government is soon to announce what it will do to bring that much needed clarity

Yesterday in the final days before this announcement is expected Rebecca Hilsenrath, CEO of the Equality and Human Rights Commission made a statement, YouGov released polling data and the House of Commons Library published a research briefing.

Do they help us get to clarity?

EHRC: inventing “special circumstances”

Hilsenrath’s statement recognises the need for unambiguous guidance. This is something EHRC could have provided but has refused to.

But she goes further in the wrong direction introducing the ambiguous idea of “special circumstances” as a requirement for excluding transgender people from services for the opposite sex:

” the special circumstances set out in the 2010 Act, which allow organisations to treat trans people differently, do not hinge on whether the trans person has a GRC or not”

In fact the Equality Act does not mention “special circumstances” for excluding male people from female-only services (and vice versa).

The protected characteristic of “gender reassignment” in the Equality Act 2010 is very broad. It treats someone as trans if they are so much as “proposing to undergo” a process of personal transition. This does not have to involve any medical treatment at all.

As Vera Baird, then Solicitor General, stated in 2009 when the bill that became the Equality Act was being debated.

“There are a lot of ways in which that can be manifested for instance, by making their intention known. Even if they do not take a single further step, they will be protected straight away.”

Vera Baird, Solicitor General

Discrimination protection related to the characteristic “gender reassignment” is not a sliding scale. A person’s transition might involve things such as clothes, makeup and hairstyle, ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ behaviours. It could involve hormones, facial surgery, mastectomy or false breasts, and for a minority, genital surgery, but it does not have to. A person is protected straight away on proposing to transition, and does not get more protection against discrimination by taking more of these steps, or achieving a more convincing likeness with the opposite sex. These are things that they might to do feel ‘right’ in themselves but rights in relation to others cannot be given or taken away based on personal grooming, cosmetic surgery or the performance of sex stereotypes.

Furthermore, as the EHRC highlights in their Code of Practice people who start the gender reassignment process but then decide to stop also have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.

In this sense, s.7 of the Equality Act operates even more broadly than self-ID – any man who says he intends to live as a woman is covered (and vice versa), and that coverage is forever, whatever they look like and whether they do or don’t consider themselves transitioned. The reason for this is that this protection is intended to be general (you should not lose your job for intending to transition, transitioning or detransitioning for example).

Section 7’s broad definition of ‘gender reassignment’ is not an access pass for spaces provided for the privacy or needs of members of the opposite sex.

It should be obvious that no “special circumstances” are needed to exclude a man who says he intends to “live as a woman” from communal services provided for the privacy, dignity or particular needs of women. If on Tuesday Colin declares Colin’s intention to transition it is as inappropriate to be in the women’s showers as it was on Monday. If Colin’s changes name to Cilla and pronouns to she/her and declares this a complete transition, this is fully valid on Cilla’s part. But still it does not confer the right to share intimate spaces with members of the opposite sex without their consent, and no “special circumstances” need be invoked to ask Cilla to respect other people’s privacy.

This is not a question of treating someone with the protected characteristic “gender reassignment” differently, but treating them the same as others (who also do not have the right to access services provided for members of the opposite sex).

Providing unisex options in addition to single/separate sex meets the needs of anyone at any stage of a personal transition who may not wish to share with members of their own sex.

The survey says: less than 50% of people agree that transgender people should be able to use services for the opposite sex, and even fewer if it is understood this is without surgery

The YouGov poll found that fewer than 50% of people in the UK think that trans people should be able to use changing rooms of the opposite sex. This number drops, and is overtaken by people who say absolutely not, when the question specifies that the person has not had genital surgery.

Legally, whether someone has had genital surgery or not does not determine their transgender status (either under the Equality Act or the Gender Recognition Act) . And in practice it would be inappropriate to ask. In a situation (such as a hospital or a workplace) where the organisation is in a position to know whether a person has had surgery it would be inappropriate for them to share this information with other users of a single sex space.

Clear and unambiguous guidance cannot tell service providers or users that access is offered on the basis of gender reassignment surgery, clothing or appearance.

House of Commons research: Skipping over the single sex exceptions altogether

It is late in the day of this debate for the House of Commons Library to be publishing basic research. And stunningly its new research briefing on Gender recognition and the rights of transgender people. gets the Equality Act wrong.

In setting out the legal basis for single sex services it skips straight over the single and separate sex exceptions themselves (Schedule 3 paragraphs 26 and 27 of the Equality Act 2010) and goes straight to paragraph 28 which focuses on “gender reassignment discrimination” in services.

It is paragraphs 26 and 27 of Schedule 3 the Equality Act which set out reasons why it may be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim to provide single and separate sex services (including for everyday bodily privacy: in circumstances where it is reasonable for one person to object to the presence of a person of the opposite sex).

As explained above (and by discrimination lawyer Audrey Ludwig ) having the protected characteristic “gender reassignment” does not mean that a person loses the protected characteristic of sex. And if someone does not have a Gender Recognition Certificate, then unambiguously their legal sex is the same as it was the day they were born.

It is paragraphs 26 and 27 and their exceptions to the rules on sex discrimination which enables single and separate sex services (i.e. sex based rules) where they are justified.

The House of Commons briefing seems to be searching for the “special circumstances” argument and it zeroes in on the explanatory notes to paragraph 28 which state that:

In a group counselling session is provided for female victims of sexual assault. The organisers do not allow transsexual people to attend as they judge that the clients who attend the group session are unlikely to do so if a male-to-female transsexual person was also there. This would be lawful.

Presumably this example in the guidance relates to a male-to-female transsexual person with a GRC (i.e. legally female), since a transsexual person without a GRC would be excluded on the basis of their sex (i.e. under paragraph 26, not 28).

Having skipped over what the actual law says about single and separate sex services, the House of Commons briefing further muddies the waters by saying that unnamed ‘legal commentators’ have “expressed concern” that this portion of the explanatory notes “overstates the exception” and argue “that the proportionality test imposes stricter requirements”:

It would be inadequate for a provider of services to assume female victims of sexual assault would necessarily object to a trans-woman attending group counselling sessions. A degree of canvassing of opinion would surely be required

This is an argument that has been advanced by legal commentator Alex Sharpe (who also ignores paragraphs 26 and 27).

The inappropriateness (and inhumanity) of the idea that women who have been raped should first have to answer questions about whether they are willing to to welcome a male person into a women-only counselling session (and potentially be shamed and called a bigot if they don’t), before they themselves can access help themselves should be obvious.

Furthermore there are no details about any individual male person who identifies as a woman which could be shared in this “canvasing” process; they may or may not have had surgery, they may appear unambiguously male, they may have been living ‘as a man’ until the day before. All of these details would be inappropriate to disclose, and none of them affect the protected characteristic of “gender reassignment”.

The clear and unambiguous guidance which the government and the EHRC recognises is needed has two options: either it must state that all males with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment have the right to use women-only services (as Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, Mermaids and legal commentators urge them to do) or none of them do.

There is no other clear and unambiguous guidance on rights that is possible.

Males who wish to use share intimate spaces with women without their consent may prefer ambiguity and reference to unworkable “special circumstances”. But women and girl’s ability to wash, undress (and yes, use the toilet) in privacy, as well as to access specialist women-only services including refuges, hostels and prisons must mean the ability of institutions to unambiguously and clearly say “no” to males, including those that are members of other vulnerable and minority groups.

The core question that this website is concerned with is whether, and on what basis, male adults have the right to use “female-only” single sex services, include those services provided for everyday bodily privacy (under Schedule 3, paragraph 27 (6) of the Equality Act 2010 in the UK):

Whatever your instinct on the question it is clear that policies must be clear and workable: everyone – female, male, those who identify as transgender, and the duty staff managing facilities need clarity. Everyone needs to know what to expect: who is allowed where, and what questions they are allowed to ask.

The need for clarity is a very basic requirement in situations where people are undressing and vulnerable. Without this, everyone’s privacy and dignity is at risk.

So people turn to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for guidance, or to the Government Equalities Office.

The EHRC Code of Practice (2011) for services, public functions and associations says this:

If a service provider provides single- or separate sex services for women and men, or provides services differently to women and men, they should treat transsexual people according to the gender role in which they present.

EHRC Code of Practice, 2011

“Transsexual people” is a term that is defined in the Equality Act more broadly than in everyday speech as someone “proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.” (Equality Act 2010 s. 7) It does not require any medical procedure (and it does not mean that a person’s sex has changed).

There is no definition of “gender role” in the Equality Act.

The EHRC’s online guidance says this:

If you are accessing a service provided for men-only or women-only, the organisation providing it should treat you according to your acquired gender.

EHRC online guidance, 2019

“Acquired gender” is language from the Gender Recognition Act (which also does not require surgical changes). It is not used in the Equality Act.

In their most recent guidance “What equality law means for your business” (2018) they have changed the wording again.

Generally, a business which is providing separate services or single-sex services should treat a transsexual person according to the sex in which the transsexual person presents.

EHRC Guidance, 2018

The EHRC never set out clearly what any of these different formulations mean (and the fact that they keep changing the words suggests they haven’t thought it through themselves). None of it addresses the practical question of what a service provider should do in the situation where a person has a “gender role” (for example clothing) or an expressed gender identity which is different from the recognisable fact of their sex?

How are service providers supposed to train their staff to recognise these gender roles — if women can wear short hair, jeans and no make up, what is the “gender role” that transwomen must play?

Alternatively if they interpret “sex in which they present” to mean imperceptibly passing; how are they supposed to convey this policy respectfully to customers who would like to believe that they pass but in fact do not?

Guidance from the Government Equalities Office “Providing services for transgender customers” (published with the transgender lobby group Gendered Intelligence in 2015) says that instead service providers should accept that gender is not something they can ascertain:

Try not to assume you can always tell someone’s gender by looking at them or hearing their voice.

GEO Guidance 2015

The GEO guidance says that the deciding factor is the transgender person’s own choice:

A trans person should be free to select the facilities (such as toilets or changing rooms) appropriate to the gender in which they present.

GEO Guidance 2015

They define trans people to include part-time cross-dressers and those who consider themselves non-binary.

Trans people come from all walks of life and include those who may describe themselves as transsexual, transgender, a cross-dresser (transvestite), non-binary and anyone else who may not conform to traditional gender roles.

GEO Guidance, 2015

It gives as an example of unacceptable direct discrimination:

Refusing to allow a [trans] woman to use female facilities because staff perceive her to be male.

GEO Guidance, 2015

How did they get it so wrong?

All of this guidance put service providers in a position of humiliating either female customers or transgender customers and having angry stand-offs and upsets. All of it ignores the point of separate sex facilities in the first place: people of one sex can reasonably object to sharing intimate spaces with members of the opposite sex.

Allowing male adults to undress with women and girls is “unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic” which has the effect of creating an “intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” – in other words, the definition of harassment in the Equality Act (s.26)

The guidance goes wrong from the outset in assuming that the Equality Act gives some transgender people the the right to share facilities intended for the privacy of members of the opposite sex. In fact it does not. It states that it is unlawful to discriminate against or harass a transsexual person in general.

Transsexual people (like everyone) have a right not to have their reasonable privacy interfered with. People should not have to talk about their mental health diagnosis, medical treatment or surgery.

But it is legitimate to have unambiguous policies about who can use a single sex service, which requires people to honestly declare their sex.

Separate sex facilities are therefore not suitable for everyone.

All of the official guidance make the mistake of encouraging trans people to break the rules and telling service providers they must make individual “case by case” determinations of whether an individual can be allowed into a particular service intended for the opposite sex.

All of this requires asking intrusive questions or judging the stage, validity or completeness of a person’s gender reassignment process. For example the GEO guidance from 2010 tells service providers to take into account:

This is an impossible ask – since questions about the “stage of gender reassignment” are intrusive.

A workable approach is for service providers to offer unisex alternatives to accommodate people for whom the rules governing separate sex services don’t work so that no intrusive questions need be asked and everyone has a space to undress with ordinary privacy and dignity.

The confusing mess of current guidance does not protect the rights of either women and girls or transgender people.

The Government Equalities Office and the EHRC should review its guidance to protect everyone’s rights.

Single and separate sex services are provided to meet the needs of people of one sex or the other. Often this need is simply for a place to undress, wash, and undertake bodily functions with privacy and dignity, in order to take part in public life such as at the gym, pub, clothing shops, school, university, train station or at work.

In the UK this basic privacy is provided for under the Equality Act – Schedule 3 Paragraph 27 (6)

This section of the law reflects some facts of life that were until quite recently taken for granted – people come in two sexes, people can usually recognise the sex of other adults, and there are circumstances (especially involving undressing and being vulnerable) where it is reasonable to object to having to share a space with a member of the opposite sex.

Single sex spaces are created by institutions setting rules: for example “women only: no males in here”, and people complying with the rule.

Most people follow the rules, not because they are necessarily strongly policed (there is no one checking IDs at the door), but because they understand that transgressing other people’s boundaries is inappropriate. The formal rules, and any enforcement of them is a backstop to this social norm.

There are many arguments mustered by people who want to erode this social norm, to tell women and girls that their boundaries are bigotry, to say that is fine for males who want to access spaces where women are undressing to break these rules and to make it impossible to enforce them.

The “trans man gotcha” is one of those.