There appeared for a moment to be some kind of sea change in the approach to trans issues after the UK Supreme Court ruled in April that a woman is a woman. But this could be at risk now that officials are working to delay new legal guidance, apparently in the hope that more liberal figures can alter it in their favour first.
Reports have this week pointed to infighting at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) government watchdog, whose chair Baroness Falkner claims the Supreme Court’s judgment is effective immediately and that organisations must follow it—meaning single-sex spaces must be respected at workplaces, shops and sports areas.
It appears as though activists are working to undermine Falkner and to hold off the publication of (presumably weaker) guidance until after she is replaced in November.
One Labour MP toldThe Guardian: “I don’t think we’ll get anywhere with Falkner as chair. She’s not neutral.” They added that Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s team “won’t sign off on the guidance” if they are not confident “that all voices are being heard.”
Former Olympic swimmer and woman’s activist Sharron Davies attacked this “political move to sabotage women’s rights.”
The Conservatives For Women campaign group also stressed that the definition ruling was “clear.”
Men aren’t women and men can’t use women’s services and spaces. Some people are desperate to transgress and/or to push their weight around. But it is over.
Indeed, ‘Sex Matters’ representative Helen Joyce noted that guidance or no guidance, the Supreme Court ruling is already easy to interpret, and “those claiming that the judgment is hard to understand, or that organisations should wait for further guidance, are simply trying to sow confusion where there is none.”
The EHRC says guidance will still be published in July, despite these reports.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
