Thread by @fairplaywomen

At last! Consensus between pro-women and pro-trans groups: All want clearer guidance on single-sex spaces /1

fairplayforwomen.com/calls-for-clea…

Transgender pressure groups, trans allies, trades unions & others are calling for clearer guidance on the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act 2010. We agree. The Equality Act is clear, but the statutory guidance issued by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission is not /2

The calls are in evidence submitted to the current inquiry by the Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC) into the government’s planned changes to the Gender Recognition Act /3

What’s very clear is the current guidance is not fit for purpose and doesn’t meet the needs of any of the main stakeholders /4

It’s criticised by women who want to know they can access female-only spaces. It’s also criticised by transgender people who want to know if or when they can access those female-only spaces. This needs to be addressed /5

The only one that DOESNT want clear guidance is Stonewall

“Stonewall strongly recommends that the Committee does not use this inquiry to recommend changes to the Equality Act or the *accompanying Statutory Codes of Practice*” /6

There’s been a clear tactical change. Where they once used to lobby aggressively for the single-sex exceptions to be removed for transgender people now they are concerned about losing the upper hand /7

They frame this as being because of a ‘regressive’ and ‘anti-trans’ movement. It is of course simply that now women are rightly acknowledged as stakeholders too, demanding and expecting to be included in policy development /8

A good outcome from the current WESC inquiry would be to heed the calls of most lobby groups on both sides, to remove the ambiguity of the EHRC interpretation of the EA and for the government to re-establish clear guidance for service providers /end

fairplayforwomen.com/calls-for-clea…