EQUALITY AND Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) new guidance for single-sex spaces will end up discriminating against transgender people, claims LGBTQ+ charity organisation Stonewall.
The EHRC released the new guidance recently, which states that trans people can be legitimately excluded from single-sex services for “justifiable and proportionate” reasons, which could include privacy, decency, preventing trauma, or ensuring health and safety.
EHRC guidance also suggests that people who hold gender recognition certificates can be excluded from these spaces “if your action is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.
A spokesperson from Stonewall has criticised and finds this guidance compromising the Equality Act 2010 and going out of its way to justify the exclusion of trans women.
“Far from clarifying how the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act should be used, the EHRC’s latest non-statutory guidance is likely to create more confusion. It appears to go against the core presumption of the Act, which is that inclusion should be the starting point, and shifts the focus towards reasons trans people, and specifically trans women, can be excluded”, the spokesperson said.
According to the Equality Act 2010, providers cannot discriminate against someone based on sex or gender reassignment, but there are exceptions where access for certain groups can be modified or limited if there is what is described as a “legitimate aim”.
Stonewall and other groups recently urged the United Nations to review the EHRC’s international accreditation due to its stand on trans rights – but this was refused by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission insists that “Our mission at the EHRC is to protect the rights of everyone and ensure that people across Britain are treated fairly. There is no place for discrimination against anyone based on their sex or gender reassignment”.
She added, “Organisations are legally allowed to restrict services to a single-sex in some circumstances. But they need help to navigate this sensitive area. That is why we have published this guidance – to clarify the law and uphold everyone’s rights.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is Great Britain’s national equality body and has been awarded an ‘A’ status as a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) by the United Nations.
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