Thread by @MForstater

There will be much talk of the single-sex exceptions in the Equality Act over the next few days.
These are the exceptions that allow service providers to offer services that are only open to one sex or the other (found at Schedule 3 Part 7 of the Act). (1/7)

Without these provisions service providers would be committing sex discrimination by excluding men or women.
Service providers don’t need to “use these exceptions” to exclude people, they just provide the service in the normal way. If they were to get sued they (or a lawyer) can point to the exceptions to show the service is lawful. (2/7)

The exceptions disapply both the prohibitions against sex discrimination and gender reassignment discrimination.

Again service providers don’t have to “use the exceptions” to exclude someone based on a particular protected characteristic. (3/7)

For example, say a shop provides a bra fitting service. 👙

This is a service that is just for women and girls.👩‍🦰

Now a male customer wants to be measured and try on a bra in store. 💋

The shopkeeper says no. ✋

The customer could sue but the shopkeeper would win. ✅

What if the customer had adopted a female name & women’s clothing, & is on a "journey of transition". The shopkeeper can still say no. What if he has a gender recognition certificate? The shopkeeper isn’t going to know this. And if the customer later turns up in court with the certificate it is not going to make the shopkeepers’ action unlawful. (5/7)

The exceptions aren’t a special layer of protection applied to particularly sensitive single and separate sex services.

This is a myth spread by Stonewall. (6/7)

Either a service is mixed sex (like a train, an optician or a hardwear store). If doesn't offer an equal service to men and woment that is unlawful.

Or it is single sex (like a women’s changing room, a men’s sauna, a women’s swimming session, or a toilet).

The exceptions are what make these services lawful. (7/7)

a-question-of-consent.net/2020/05/05/the…