The updated code of practice provides guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission for service providers, associations, and public function deliverers on applying the Equality Act. It covers all nine protected characteristics, including disability, race, and sexual orientation. The update places special emphasis on practical guidance for applying a Supreme Court ruling on single-sex spaces. The ruling states that, for Equality Act purposes, the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. This affects access to women-only services and spaces such as refuges and toilets. Some companies restricted transgender access immediately, while others paused due to costs and practicalities of providing gender-neutral facilities and awaited further guidance. Trans-inclusive businesses describe competing legal rights and staff concerns about being required to police toilets.
"We are not deciding what the law should be. Parliament does that. The supreme court clarified what it is. We are just providing guidance for service providers on how they can best follow the law."
"The landmark judgment said that, for the purposes of the Equality Act, the legal definition of a woman was based on biological sex. This has had significant ramifications for who can now access women-only services and spaces, such as refuges or toilets."
"Immediately after the ruling, a few companies moved quickly to bar transgender people from using facilities of their lived gender, but most remained in limbo, concerned about the costs and practicalities of providing extra gender neutral toilets, for example, and awaiting further guidance from the EHRC."
"Those businesses that want to remain trans inclusive have highlighted a minefield of competing legal rights and staff concerns about being forced to police toilets."
Read at www.theguardian.com
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