Labour Faces Backlash Over Trans People And Appearance Checks

Trans campaigners have hit out at the government’s draft EHRC code of practice, and warned it would lead to policing people on their appearance and gender presentation.

The UK’s Supreme Court ruled in April that sex is defined by biology not gender identity, sending shockwaves across the LGBTQ+ community.

But many councils, NHS trusts and businesses have chosen not to prevent trans women from using female single-sex spaces – like toilets – just yet, and say they are waiting for new guidance from the government.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s advice is yet to be published – despite allegedly sitting on equalities minister Bridget Phillipson’s desk for three months – but it was leaked to The Times this week.

According to the report, hospital wards, gyms and leisure centres will be allowed to question transgender women over their use of single-sex services – solely based on their appearance, their behaviour or concerns raised by others.

The draft advice suggests that if any trans people are then excluded from such a space, organisations must consider whether there is a suitable alternative – although it also acknowledges this might be difficult due to physical constraints of buildings or high costs.

Campaigners have criticised the leaked guidance, warning that it would be a “licence to discriminate based on looks, plain and simple”.

A spokesperson for TransActual said: “Astonishingly, the UK’s ‘human rights watchdog’ is attempting to mandate that staff at cinemas, hospitals, bars and cafes must try and judge whether users are trans or not based on appearance alone. This is a licence to discriminate based on looks, plain and simple.

“We’ve seen this before – people trying to make our society into a place that is only safe for ‘normal’ ladies. Not just loos. But sports centres, changing rooms and more.“They continued: “We know from experience that women of colour and butch lesbians are more likely to be seen as unfeminine by strangers, so this policy would have racist and homophobic impacts as well as being obviously incredibly harmful for trans people.

“We offer our solidarity to the many cis women who have been targeted and harassed for their appearance by ‘gender critical activists’ who believed they were trans, and who would be put even further at risk by these rules.

“We cannot believe that government would be so foolish – so hell-bent on shooting itself in the foot – as to go along with this. We therefore trust that equalities minister Bridget Phillipson will treat it with the contempt it deserves and reject this costly, cruel and unworkable guidance, sending it back to the EHRC to be completely rewritten.”

Labour MP Stella Creasy also criticised the leaked advice, writing on X: “If this is true it means the culmination of this process is now a proposal to reinforce gender stereotypes, with those who don’t fit them having to justify themselves regardless of their biological sex. Thus, the EHRC itself now seeking to legitimise stereotypes rather than tackle them.”

Labour for Trans Rights group said following this advice “would be a disaster”.

It added: “Ministers must send the draft back to EHRC. If they don’t improve the terrible guidance, Parliamentarians should vote against approval.”

The minister for children, families and wellbeing Josh MacAlister told Times Radio that the government was still trying to “get it right”.

He said: “I think that the public now looking at the draft guidance … will recognise that when you drill down into examples of how this might be applied, it has big implications for individuals, businesses, public services.”