Trans Apartheid in Britain
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Trans Apartheid in Britain
“This is a full on war on trans people in the UK”
Trans people in the UK have long felt like second-class citizens, and now the a British government’s equal rights watchdog has issued guidance on how to segregate public spaces.
The so-called "Equality and Human Rights Commission" issued the new guidance on Monday.
Using a questionable interpretation of country’s Equality Act to justify closing off spaces to trans people in Britain, the EHRC offered to “help service providers to make lawful decisions about any services they offer to women and men separately.”
The guidance was met with anger and disbelief.
“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,” a spokesperson for LBGT rights group Stonewall told The Guardian. “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.”
“This is a full on war on trans people in the UK,” tweeted attorney Alejandra Caraballo.
Former television presenter India Willoughby called it “trans apartheid,” actor David Paisley predicted the guidance would be “open to legal challenge,” and activist and YouTube personality Sophie from Mars said that “the EHRC is trying to push a bathroom bill in the UK.”
While this latest attack on trans Britons is notable for how awful it is, it’s part of a pattern for the EHRC. As I reported in March:
Leaked guidance from the commission revealed the EHRC plans to exclude trans people from gender-restricted areas unless they show an appropriate Gender Recognition Certificate. Only 1% of trans Britons have a GRC.
“Life for trans people in Britain has turned into a living nightmare over the last five years,” Willoughby told me in February.
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