Protect inclusive spaces from gender-critical legal battles, Starmer told after Hampstead ladies pond row
Sir Keir Starmer has been called on to protect inclusive spaces from gender-critical legislation after a campaign group tried to take legal action to exclude trans women from the Hampstead Ladies’ Pond.
A coalition of more than 140 LGBT+ and feminist organizations has warned that “transgender people in the UK face an existential threat, while businesses, employers and service providers are being dragged into the courts for defending their inclusive practices.”
In the letter coordinated by the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance and sent to hundreds of MPs, IndependentFollowing the Supreme Court ruling last year, MPs were called on to put pressure on the prime minister and minister on women and equalities to protect trans-inclusive spaces from the risk of expensive legal action.
It comes after the charity Sex Matters launched legal action against the City of London Corporation, which operates men’s, women’s and mixed swimming pools in north London.
The gender-critical organization argued that the policy of allowing transgender individuals to use facilities for the gender they identify with amounts to gender discrimination.
But last month a judge ruled the case could not proceed, saying the “appropriate forum” for the claim was the district court rather than the Supreme Court.
The judge’s decision follows last year’s Supreme Court ruling that a person’s legal sex under the Equality Act is the gender they were biologically assigned at birth.
However, Sex Matters said it was disappointed with the decision and was considering its legal options; This means Hampstead Ladies Pond could face further action.
Last year, Girlguiding described the move to ban trans girls as “a decision we would prefer not to make”, while the Women’s Institute said it was with “great regret and sadness” that the end of decades of involvement came.
The letter, signed by 146 organisations, states: “Fighting for inclusion is difficult: 86 per cent of respondents to the City of London’s recent Hampstead Heath swimming pools consultation want to remain trans-inclusive, but the Corporation still faces the prospect of expensive litigation.
“They don’t want this. But whatever the courts decide, the legal battle against inclusive organizations will continue, with public money and operating budgets spent defending against it – unless you take action.”
The report adds: “Anything short of this risks forcing businesses, charities and public services to police everyone’s gender – reports suggest the EHRC has apparently recommended doing so, putting all women at risk of misogynistic abuse. This would be dangerous and unworkable.”
The letter asks MPs Sir Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson to “work to ensure that our equality law and guidance maintains the norm of trans inclusion” and “commit to ensuring that all UK legislation protects the human rights of trans and gender non-conforming people”.
Amnesty International Feminists Co-chair Jessica Fortune, who signed the letter, warned that “feminism that does not include trans people is not feminism.”
“This just reinforces the gender hierarchy that we have always struggled with,” she told The Independent. “Silence is not neutral. When gender policing intensifies towards trans people, all women are harmed.”
Ms Fortune warned that anti-trans ‘laws’ were a “dangerous distraction from the real threats facing women’s safety” and said: “We must direct our anger at the right target – the groups that seek to divide us and the government that fails to act.”
Meanwhile, Heather Paterson of the LGBT+ Consortium, one of the letter’s signatories, said: “Trans inclusion is the norm across the country. Our members are working every day to create safer, more inclusive spaces in the UK, and we’ve seen where exclusion leads before.”
“We will not remain silent while trans lives, inclusive organizations, and the values that hold our communities together are put at risk.”
The latest intervention comes amid further delays in introducing new guidance on transgender people’s use of single-sex spaces following a Supreme Court ruling.
Following the decision last April that the term “woman” in the equality legislation refers to biological sex, the updated codes of practice were shared with the government at the beginning of September, more than four months ago.
A leaked draft of the guidance suggested in November that transgender people could be banned from single-sex spaces based on their appearance; Trans rights advocates have called it “a license to discriminate based on appearance, plain and simple.”
Left-wing Labor MP Nadia Whittome said: Independent “Policing people’s gender is fundamentally harmful to all women, trans or not.”
Focusing on the letter, he added: “I wholeheartedly believe that my fellow MPs will listen to them.
“We must pressure the government to protect the rights of our transgender voters and prevent businesses and organizations from being forced to exclude transgender people through legal threats.”
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at sex rights charity Sex Matters, said: “As the Supreme Court confirmed last year, equality law can only protect women from sex discrimination if sex is understood in law to mean sex, not paperwork or personal identity. Any organization with policies that do not comply with this understanding is acting unlawfully and harming women.”
A government spokesman said: “We expect all office holders to comply with the High Court decision and seek legal advice where necessary.”The EHRC has submitted the draft Code of Practice for Services, Public Offices and Associations to Ministers and we are working rapidly to review it appropriately. “This will provide further guidance to duty holders on how to implement the Equality Act.”
