Trans people banned from single-sex spaces based on their appearances in leaked UK guidancehttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/11/trans-people-banned-from-single-spaces-based-on-their-appearances-in-leaked-uk-guidance/ 🔗Faefyx Collington (20 Nov 2025)
Leaked, unpublished guidance from the U.K.'s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) recommends policies that would exclude trans people from public single-sex spaces such as restrooms. It would also encourage those running public spaces to question people's gender identity and exclude them if they suspected they were trans.
According to The Times, which obtained the leaked guidance, "Under the new guidance, places such as hospital wards, gyms and leisure centres will be able to question transgender women over whether they should be using single-sex services based on how they look, their behaviour or concerns raised by others. If there is doubt they are telling the truth about their sex, they could be banned from using those services once those running them had considered 'relevant factors.'"
The EHRC reportedly first delivered this guidance document to U.K. ministers three months ago. The minister for women and equalities, Bridget Phillipson, has not yet officially published the guidance. The documents were leaked to The Times by anonymous political figures who claimed the Labour Party was delaying publication to avoid political backlash.
Under the new guidance, "a person's sex remains their biological sex, whether they have a GRC [gender recognition certificate] or not. A trans man with a GRC is a woman and a trans woman with a GRC is a man, for the purposes of the Act." That would mean that allowing a trans person to access a single-sex space based on their gender identity could be considered unlawful sex discrimination.
