Green-run London councils have signaled they will resist implementing new guidance on single-sex spaces. From Wednesday, single-sex facilities such as toilets, changing-rooms and refuges, must be used by people based on their sex at birth, rather than the gender they identify as. It follows a Supreme Court ruling last year which supporters welcomed as “practical”, but critics warned will damage the trans community.
It means service providers will be allowed to exclude trans people from some spaces if they decide other users might object to them being there. If trans women are welcomed, it will not legally be regarded as a woman-only space.
Councils take a stand
Lambeth, which has been run by a minority Green administration since the local elections in May, was the first to back calls to defy the new rules. Green-led Waltham Forest also passed a motion challenging the guidance with other local authorities in the capital expected to follow.
Natalie Kane, Lambeth’s deputy leader and cabinet member for inclusion, said the updated guidelines would have “significant negative impacts” for people in the borough who identify as LGBTQIA+.
“For trans, intersex and gender non-conforming individuals, as well as those men and women who do not fit normative social representations of gender, these guidelines present the danger of discrimination and prejudice in the spaces where we should be prioritising care, support and service provision,” she added.
“When residents access our public services, they should not be concerned about how their gender is perceived, but how we provide the very best service for them, every step of the way.
“Trans women are women, trans men are men. Trans rights are human rights.”
A motion passed by councillors condemned the code as "incoherent and self-contradictory, discriminatory, and impossible to implement in a reasonable and proportionate manner.”
Mayor urged to step in
Lambeth has endorsed a plan to produce its own policy for workplaces and services “which protects and champions transgender and non-conforming people’s right to basic dignity and respect for their private life”.
Green Party London Assembly member Caroline Russell on Tuesday wrote to Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan urging him to work with councils and service providers across the city to help “them remain trans inclusive”.
She said: “Constituents have contacted me in genuine fear and distress about what this guidance would mean for their lives.
"As the new code comes into force, Londoners need to know how the Mayor will uphold the rights of trans people, and what support he is putting in place to help service providers to remain trans-inclusive.
“I’m calling on the Mayor to work with Councils across London in supporting their efforts to make sure this new guidance cannot be used to diminish the everyday rights of trans Londoners so that London remains a place where everyone can belong.
“This is about Trans people's right to exist in society free from abuse, discrimination and segregation, with the autonomy to be who they know themselves to be.”
A Government spokesman previously said the updated statutory guidance is "about giving organisations the guidance they need, not changing the law or creating new rules". They suggested that "many businesses will already be largely compliant with the code so there will be no cost at all".
