EHRC Recommends The UK Government Decimate Trans Rights

What is happening and what can you do to help!

NOTE! This article contains a What Can I Do? section at the bottom. Go there first if you are feeling panicked.

The corrupt Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has written a letter to the government suggesting that the Equality Act 2010 (EA2010) should be amended in a way that would remove much of the legal rights trans people have today, including both banning them from public spaces and taking away legal protections from misogyny for trans women. This has been coming for a while. The EHRC has been falling apart ever since the people at the helm were replaced with government stooges and, along with banning trans healthcare and introducing a new Section 28, this has been one of the main goals of the Gender Critical movement since its inception. You can see the letter below.

Overview

This change would have large and very serious implications for trans people:

It would allow businesses, workplaces and public spaces to ban trans people from using the facilities. This would likely result in a situation where you would have to ring up every shop/pub/museum/hospital/etc in advance to see if they serve trans people.
It would remove trans women’s legal protections from misogyny in hiring, workplace sexism, and even the gender pay gap. This would likely result in even further discrimination against trans people in every aspect of life from housing to compensation at work.
It would hide trans people in official government statistics. This may not sound as serious as the above, but will be used to justify further discrimination against trans people.

In detail

The letter itself is a disaster for multiple reasons, and the two biggest of those are easily explained with the example of the gender pay gap.

Yes they really are gloating about how they believe that the amendment they want would just take away trans women’s legal recourse when it comes to the Gender Pay Gap (which, by the way, affects trans women even more than cis women). It is their goal that no trans woman be able to have any support from misogyny at any stage in her life, including here… but this isn’t actually how the EA2010 works. Every protection in the Equality Act is based on perception, so today it doesn’t actually matter if you are a trans man or a trans woman or cis, or if you have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) or not, if your employer sees you as a woman and pays you less because of it then the law protects you.

So why have they written it like this? Well, firstly it allows them to frame this as if it is a trade off “you can either protect trans men or trans women so we are really just changing it around a bit”. Secondly a core part of GC ideology has been falsely claiming that the EA2010 only gives legal protections to trans people with a GRC, and acting as if that view already applies is both useful for this campaign, and in future if this particular move fails. Finally they are just incompetent. Many of their legal advisors have quit over the attacks on LGBT rights. Believers in GC ideology have created their own alternate reality and lots of them (but not all) genuinely believe the verifiably false stuff they are saying.

So does this mean trans women will lose protections from the Gender Pay Gap or not? From this change alone it is unclear. It will add an extra hurdle as obviously the first attempt at a defence of any misogynist can now be “but she’s not a woman so therefore the law doesn’t apply here”. But in practice what are the chances that any trans person would be able to prove this in court today? Low. What this does do however is set a precedent to the country and to businesses. How the law treats people affects how society treats people. If you treat trans women as second class citizens then that is how the public will treat them. If businesses believe that they can get away with not paying trans women as much, then they will try it. Trans people are already more likely to be homeless and unemployed, who is going to be in a position to fight this and risk losing their income entirely?

This pattern is also seen with their calls to ban trans women from the spaces we use today, and their calls to remove our other legal protections from misogyny.

But how can they do this, won’t that mean that…?

Yes it would technically mean that trans men who pass as men are forced to use women’s spaces. Yes it would mean repealing the GRA2004. Yes it conflicts with the European Court of Human Rights previous rulings. Yes it’s unenforceable. Yes there is no way to define biological sex as a binary. Yes this will mean some intersex people are affected. And NO they DO NOT CARE.

I understand that having an argument with one of the supporters of this, showing them that what they want isn’t even achievable or rational, might feel like progress but you need to understand their goals here. They aren’t trying to find out what is true or how to help the most number of people. They don’t care about science or law or trans people’s lives. This is about enforcing their patriarchal view of the world onto society and moving towards a world where trans people don’t exist.

The two main forces here in my opinion are a far right government that is failing in the polls and thus needs new minorities to target as a distraction and radicalisation tool, and the “true believers” of the GC movement. The Conservative Party do not care if you live or die, they do not care if women and LGBT people have human rights or not, they do not care what is true or false. All they care about is winning elections and being in power. They see this as a political tool and nothing more and if it was unpopular with their base they’d just drop it. The GC movement on the other hand cares a lot, for most of its believers this is the single thing on Earth that they do care about. They want to eliminate trans people from society at all costs, and if that involves lying or destroying their own rights or believing yes and no at the same time, they will. Do not expect either of these two groups to care about the rational argument you have, or to be remotely interested in the evidence. That isn’t how they think. You should plan your actions accordingly.

What can I do?

Don’t panic

This is advice for myself as much as it is for everyone else. I cannot tell you it will all be ok. I do not know what will happen. But as many larger orgs have pointed out nothing has changed yet. There is very limited time to try and pass this before the next election. There are a lot of people who are going to fight this every step of the way. This isn’t a done deal.

Sign this petition

And tell your friends to too
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/627984?fbclid=IwAR0jMmrGz6S5F9Y0CICfeacdJg82hjPSjFIjBe9r6dM1plJHbkqEsguuURw

Email your MP

Explain how you/a trans person you know will be deeply affected by this law change. Tell them exactly what trans people will be losing and why it is important to you. Tell them that your vote for them depends on them opposing this. Do not count on Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to be free allies.

Make plans

As much as this isn’t a done deal, do not get complacent. We are going to fight this every step of the way, but it’s not impossible that they’ll force it through, and in which case you do not want to get caught off guard. This could have serious impacts on your ability to go about your day and participate in society. You will need to consider housing, work, your support network, any social activities you do, any outstanding legal cases you have and probably more.

I really hope that this doesn’t just panic people. I think we need to be informed and ready to organise. Trans people and our allies outnumber the transphobes.