by Samuel Montgomery, Telegraph
London local authorities claim rules are harmful and pledge to keep single-sex spaces ‘inclusive’
A coalition of Left-wing councils has pledged to defy new guidance on single-sex spaces.
A revised code of practice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) came into force on Wednesday, almost 18 months after a landmark Supreme Court ruling that sex in equality law referred to biological sex rather than gender identity.
The ruling means transgender people should use either gender-neutral bathrooms or those intended for their biological sex. It applies to public services and businesses, ranging from cafés and restaurants to women’s refuges and female-only rape crisis centres.
Councils in London run by Labour, the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats have pledged to resist implementing the revised code, saying they would not put staff in the “impossible position of policing entry to public spaces”.
The leaders of Lambeth, Hackney, Haringey, Lewisham, Southwark and Waltham Forest councils made a joint commitment to keep their services “inclusive” and claimed the rules were “harmful to the rights of trans people”.
‘Non-binary identities are fundamentally valid’
In a joint letter to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities, they wrote: “Trans women are women, trans men are men, and non-binary identities are fundamentally valid.
“It is simply unacceptable that the Code of Practice is harmful to the rights of trans people and will make their exclusion from public life more likely, not less.
“This will feel like an attack to the countless trans people in our communities who are simply trying to live their lives in safety and wish to be treated with respect.”