{"id":599117,"date":"2026-05-23T03:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T03:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/599117\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T03:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T03:10:18","slug":"kind-of-humiliating-trans-community-responds-to-ehrcs-new-code-of-practice-gender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/599117\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Kind of humiliating\u2019: trans community responds to EHRC\u2019s new code of practice | Gender"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Whittle was visiting the Chelsea flower show as a birthday treat with his wife on Thursday afternoon. At around the same time, the updated code of practice<\/a> from the Equality and Human Rights Commission was published. It confirmed, among myriad updates, that single-sex spaces such as toilets and changing rooms must be used on the basis of biological sex, and that transgender people may not access those that accord with their lived gender.<\/p>\n

Among the floral displays, 70-year-old Whittle did not stray from habit. \u201cOf course I used the male facilities, as I have done for the last 50 years. Can you imagine what the guy on security would have said if I\u2019d gone to the ladies?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whittle, who spearheaded the campaign for gender recognition across the UK in the 1990s, has witnessed the significant advances, both legal and social, in the intervening years, and on Friday his focus was \u201ctrying to calm people down and say: \u2018Stay cool; we\u2019ll get through this\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

For many in the trans and wider LGBTQ+ community, as well as those running businesses and services, there has been a sense of limbo since the supreme court ruling on biological sex in April 2025, as they looked to the equalities watchdog to provide practical guidance on how to implement the judgment.<\/p>\n

For gender-critical groups who have campaigned specifically for the exclusion of trans women from women-only services, yesterday\u2019s updated code was welcomed as a consolidation of last year\u2019s court victory.<\/p>\n

But for others it prompted more questions, and for some, the guidance confirmed their worst fears.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust watching the evening news was kind of humiliating,\u201d says Blake, a data analyst based near Liverpool. \u201cHaving this frame of \u2018where are people going to pee?\u2019 It\u2019s such a reduction of the problems we have in our lives, like access to healthcare, and also a real day-to-day struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

While still examining the 340-page code on Friday morning, Katie Russell, the chief executive and co-founder of Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds, says neither it nor the court ruling have been \u201csuper-clear\u201d on how to remain trans inclusive. But since April last year, her service has taken bespoke legal advice and consulted with service users, and is making changes to governing documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn practical terms, we understand we have lost the right to call ourselves women-only, and we\u2019re gradually changing our language to make it clear we are still women-centred but for us that includes trans women. We want to operate within the law but continue to model our intersectional feminist values,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Russell emphasises that trans women and non-binary clients make up a tiny percentage of the 1,700 individuals SARSVL supported last year, mainly through one-to-one work in person, online or through the helpline. \u201cFor us that\u2019s absolutely a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim \u2013 because where else would they have to go?\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markThe guidance is a mess because the legislation is a mess. Government needs to legislate to fix equalities law<\/p>\n

Many businesses contacted by the Guardian said they wanted more time to examine the detail of the updates. But the cosmetics brand Lush, which has been consistently pro-inclusion, said the guidance was \u201ca significant setback for human rights in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

The brand\u2019s campaign lead, Andrew Butler, said: \u201cIt puts frontline service providers, retail workers and many others in the position of policing people\u2019s gender based on perception, with their organisations\u2019 liability on the line for their judgment. The guidance is a mess because the legislation is a mess. Government needs to legislate to fix equalities law and include trans voices to do so equitably.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Nicholls, the chair of UKHospitality \u2013 and representing a sector that has expressed concern about the logistics of toilet provision and its capacity to remain trans inclusive \u2013 was cautiously optimistic. \u201cThe shift to make clear that gender-neutral toilets and facilities are acceptable is a particularly positive step,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Alice, an anaesthetist working in England, says she has been coordinating with similarly affected colleagues since April last year, to ensure that the hospital she works in has gender-neutral facilities \u201cat strategic intervals\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the building I work in is very old and limited in what facilities it can offer,\u201d she said. Alice, who also needs to change clothes at work, can find herself at some distance from a toilet she is allowed to use and facing the choice of leaving her patient for an extended period, which she would never do, or dehydrating herself.<\/p>\n

Like many transgender individuals the Guardian has interviewed in recent years, Alice is making plans to move out of the UK. \u201cIt\u2019s been made abundantly clear that I\u2019m not welcome. I love my job and my family have a happy life here, but I will not be a second-class citizen in my own country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Whittle was visiting the Chelsea flower show as a birthday treat with his wife on Thursday afternoon.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-599117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}