Unisex Toilets Could Become the Norm After Trans Ruling

Unisex toilets could become the norm after the historic Supreme Court trans ruling, the head of equalities watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission has suggested. The Telegraph has more.

Baroness Falkner, the Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said “single-sex services” such as changing rooms and lavatories “must be based on biological sex”.

But she said that there was no law prohibiting trans people from using a “neutral third space” and trans organisations “should be using their powers of advocacy to ask for those third spaces”.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that laws against sex-based discrimination should only apply to biological women.

Asked about the implications of the judgment, a Health Minister was unable to say which changing room a trans woman should use.

Karin Smyth said that “female changing rooms should be used by women”, but would only say that trans people deserved “dignity” when pushed on which facilities they should use.

The Supreme Court’s judgment is expected to lead to a series of changes across public life, including who can access single-sex NHS wards or join female teams in elite sport.

Lady Falkner told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Single-sex services like changing rooms must be based on biological sex. If a male person is allowed to use a women-only service or facility, it isn’t any longer single-sex. Then it becomes a mixed-sex space.

“But I have to say, there’s no law that forces organisations, service providers, to provide a single-sex space, and there is no law against them providing a third space, an additional space, such as unisex toilets, for example, or changing rooms.”

Asked about the risk of trans people being excluded from facilities, she said that trans-rights organisations should push for more neutral third spaces to accommodate trans people.

She said: “There isn’t any law saying that you cannot use a neutral third space, and they should be using their powers of advocacy to ask for those third spaces. But I think the law is quite clear that if a service provider says we’re offering a women’s toilet, that trans people [presumably she means trans women, i.e., biological males] should not be using that single-sex facility.”

Lady Falkner said the NHS must update its trans guidance after the court’s ruling and that it also meant trans women could no longer take part in elite women’s sports.

Previously, trans women were given the same rights as biological women, allowing them to access female-only spaces and groups.

Although the Supreme Court said that trans women could not be discriminated against, the ruling means that they will no longer be treated the same way as people born female.

Let’s hope this isn’t where things end up – with trans people’s delusions abolishing single-sex spaces, the very thing the ruling was supposed to protect. Here’s a suggestion: why don’t trans people use the same toilets as everybody else, i.e., the ones that match their (biological, since it seems we have to clarify this) sex?

Worth reading in full.