April 21, 2023
EHRC Advice to the government on changing the definition of sex in The Equality Act 2010
In April 2023, The Equality and Human Rights Commission responded to a request from Kemi Badenoch MP, Minister for Women and Equalities, for legal advice on the possibility of changing the definition of sex from 'legal' to 'biological' in The Equality Act, 2010. The letter written by the EHRC suggested changes that if implemented in law would eradicate trans people from British society by preventing them from using single-sex spaces that matched their lived or legal gender, including toilets, changing rooms and hospital wards. It reflected the thinking behind anti-trans 'Bathroom Bills' which Republican administrations in a number of US states have attempted to implement.
Trans Legal Project has been horrified by this latest initiative by the EHRC to damage the basic and long held rights of the UK trans community and it completely rejects the notion that such advice is required to offer 'clarity' in this area of law. The word for blanket bans of an entire group of people from a whole range of facilities to the point that they feel unable to take part in society is not 'clarity', but 'bigotry'.
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Read the letter from the Minister for Women and Equalities to the EHRC here
