Hi queers! On Friday 25th April, the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission issued new guidance that strips away any remaining pretence that trans people are respected in this country.
Great Britain, eh? It just keeps getting better (/sarcasm).
The guidance encourages organisations to exclude trans women from women’s spaces and trans men from men’s spaces. But it doesn’t stop there. It also says that in “som “circumstances” trans people shouldn’t even be allowed to use facilities that match their biological sex. No one knows what these circumstances are. No one knows who makes the call. A barman? A receptionist? A security guard? A retail assistant? And how do they verify? Tell people to show their genitals? No one knows what the process is when it happens. It’s vague by design, so organisations and individuals can make it up as they go along, with
no accountability. Like with MAGA in America, the cruelty is the point.
It gives permission for anyone
to decide, based on a hunch or a feeling, that a trans person doesn’t belong, which invites confrontation, humiliation, and degradation. It makes every bathroom, every changing room, every refuge another place where trans people have to defend their existence.
And it’s completely unworkable. Are (some) trans men, who look like any other stereotypical man, supposed to be forced into women’s toilets now? Are trans women meant to walk into the men’s and hope they don’t get attacked? None of it makes sense.
The ruling, and money behind
it, is ALL ABOUT humbling a loud minority and making life unlivable for a group of people who politicians have decided are an easy target. Because the uneducated electorate would love it. And they are absolutely loving every moment of the cruelty. Gross.
The EHRC isn’t protecting rights with this ruling. This ruling is handing out a state-sanctioned licence to discriminate, where the quiet parts are being said out loud. And it’s happening in a Britain that already treats trans lives like political entertainment: where newspapers run endless horror stories about them; where MPs throw them under the bus for votes; where trans and non-binary people’s right to exist in public spaces is treated like an opinion to be debated, not a basic fact.
There was a time when the EHRC stood for something and
had credibility. Now it’s just another tedious and pathetic weapon in the culture wars. Another institution captured by people who think equality is a dirty word, and dignity is something you have to earn. Another MAGA-like attack on institutions that have sold their integrity to the bloodlust of a hateful electorate.
What this guidance will actually do is put more people in danger. It will give abusive individuals more opportunities to harass. It will force trans people to think twice about leaving the house, travelling, exercising, or seeking help. It will turn simple everyday needs
into risks. It will isolate people. It will humiliate people. And it will be brushed off as “just policy”, as if the human cost doesn’t matter.
And the worst part is that so many people will let it happen. They’ll say it’s complicated. They’ll pretend there are two equal sides (there, objectively, aren’t). They’ll convince themselves that excluding trans people from society is just “reasonable concerns” rather than open cruelty.
The EHRC guidance is intellectually dishonest and presents itself as fairness! When in reality, this is about control and creating a world where trans people are always second-guessing whether they are allowed to exist in the spaces everyone else takes for granted. And if they think trans and non- binary people (and their allies) will just accept it, they are wrong. Trans people are not going anywhere. Neither are their allies (me).
It’s also important to be extremely clear about legalities at this stage. These guidances are not statutory or law. It is advice and nothing more. No organisation is legally forced to follow it. No business or service is legally obliged to start excluding trans people right now.
The full version of the EHRC’s new guidance is expected in June. Until then, the most important thing we can do is be loud about it. We need to make it politically impossible for them to roll out this attack quietly. We need to protect each other however we can.
Write to your MP, even if you think it won’t make a difference. Force them to know this is happening. If they don’t reply? Ring them and chase it up. Do not be complacent because this is how snowballs turn into avalanches. Complain to the EHRC directly. Make them see that we are not passive, and we are not accepting this.
Support the legal challenges already being prepared. The Good Law Project are currently raising funds to challenge the UK Supreme Court’s redefinition of sex — and they’re preparing to fight this EHRC guidance too. Donate to them, if you can. And donate to trans charities in the UK.
If you haven’t processed what’s happening in the world right now, the alleged ‘unimaginable’ is becoming true… and fast. We cannot wait for the media to save us. They won’t! We are not ‘in vogue’ anymore. We cannot rely on institutions that have already decided trans and non-binary people are expendable.
We have to be louder, faster, and more stubborn than the people who want to push us out of public life. We fight. We organise. We protect each other. Because no one else will. Buckle up.
Drop Topher a follow @tophertaylor
