The government is set to back women who want to block biological men, who “identify” as women, from entering female changing rooms and toilets, as well as ignoring calls to allow 16-year-olds to begin medically changing sex.
Tory ministers said they had “no intention” of changing laws that allow female and male-only areas such as bathrooms in a strong rebuke to a report from Parliament’s Women and Equalities committee, led by Tory MP and former minister Maria Miller, which recommended the changes at the beginning of 2016.
Mrs Miller’s report backed calls from the transgender lobby and leftist activists for people to be able to “self-define” their gender as different to their biological sex, without medical advice or any effort to look or live as a woman.
However, as the government prepares to announce the results of a consultation on the Gender Recognition Act, the Government Equalities Office said on Sunday:
“We are confident that advancing the rights of trans people does not have to compromise women’s rights, and will work with all groups to ensure this.”
However, there are still concerns that individual organisations and businesses are being pressured by aggressive transgender activists into banning women’s spaces and allowing in biological men.
In 2016, the Women and Equalities committee also called for teachers and “all further education staff” to have “gender identity awareness training” and for “trans issues” to become “mandatory” on school curriculums.
Government-backed guidelines have subsequently supported some of these recommendations, and many individual schools have embraced transgender ideology, with some police forces spending taxpayer money on promoting transgenderism in education.
In response to a 12,000-strong petition calling for women to be consulted before any change to the Gender Recognition Act is passed, the Government Equalities Office said:
“We are clear that we have no intention of amending the Equality Act 2010, the legislation that allows for single-sex spaces.
“Any GRA reform will not change the protected characteristics in the Equality Act nor the exceptions under the Equality Act that allow provision for single and separate sex spaces.”
It added: “Providers of women-only services can continue to provide services in a different way, or even not provide services to trans individuals, provided it is objectively justified on a case-by-case basis.
“The same can be said about toilets, changing rooms or single-sex activities. Providers may exclude trans people from facilities of the sex they identify with, providing it is a proportionate means of meeting a legitimate aim.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.