UK government’s equalities watchdog says justifications could include reasons of privacy or health and safety
Highlights
- Equality and Human Rights Commission issues guidance on single-sex services.
- Transgender people can be legitimately excluded from services if the reasons are ‘justifiable and proportionate’ The guidance, published on Monday, is intended to help organisations such as hospitals, retailers, hospitality and sports clubs implement policies that are both legal and balance the needs of different groups.
- It follows an intense debate over whether trans women should be given automatic access to single sex spaces such as housing shelters, toilets, prisons and changing rooms.
- LGBT+ rights organisation Stonewall says guidance appears to undermine the Equality Act 2010 and to go out of its way to justify the exclusion of trans women.