AIBU To celebrate the government finally releasing guidance on keeping single sex spaces single sex? Even if it is more than a year after the Supreme Court judgement

Yes that’s my initial take too. It’s back to court cases rather than any guidance which is clear.

It's not. And I think what some posters, with I assume some legal background, are saying (I think) is that we'll just have to rely on the law, and be prepared to take legal action. Again. And again.

So, basically, there's little help from the guidance.

(But, that more legal action should start to trickle down to service providers. Eventually.)

(But, women will just have to keep taking people to court.)

I'm hoping we might get a bit of clarity from Sex Matters. There's an initial response out , but haven't had time to read it yet.

@EasternStandard that is intentional isn’t it.
Procedural, careful language.

But it is the Supreme Court ruling. They buried it,
they don’t like but it is now published and must be adhered to, unless seriously challenged over the next 40 days.

From Twitter

Cutting VAT on theme parks has had more coverage than this politically historic moment.

May their consciences prick them all the days of their lives.

Having looked at the other thread it appears to be neither clear nor accessible.

Published and laid out to Parliament, finally.
No HoC speech on Gov.UK

Organisations receive clear, accessible guidance on how to implement equality law in updated draft Code of Practice
Government lays the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) draft updated Code of Practice in Parliament.
From:
Office for Equality and Opportunity, Equality and Human Rights Commission and The Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP
Published
21 May 2026

Government lays the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) draft updated Code of Practice in Parliament
The draft Code provides guidance to make the law clearer for service providers and others, protecting people’s rights across England, Scotland and Wales.
The approach is practical and proportionate, ensuring everyone can access services safely, free from harassment, and with dignity.
The Minister for Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson, has laid the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) draft updated Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations in Parliament.
Following the Supreme Court judgment which said that, for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, sex means biological sex and that trans people are still protected by the Act under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, the EHRC draft Code’s content on sex and gender reassignment has been updated.
Organisations should continue to follow the law as clarified by the Supreme Court, taking specialist legal advice if needed. The draft Code gives organisations clear, workable guidance which will enable them to take a pragmatic approach to protecting and serving the needs of our society. Following EHRC’s consultation with a range of services, the draft Code supports providers in ensuring they can make practical, and ultimately sensible decisions for every day scenarios, such as toilet provision.
Bridget Phillipson MP, Minister for Women and Equalities said:
The Equality Act enshrines our rights in law so that people can live free from discrimination and harassment.
Our focus has always been making sure organisations have clear, accessible guidance on how to implement the law.
I thank the EHRC for their work updating the draft Code of Practice, and look forward to continuing to work with them to ensure people’s rights are upheld across our country.
The government is proud of the Equality Act 2010 and will protect and uphold it. The draft Code is an important supplement to ensure organisations across Great Britain have clear and workable guidance on its implementation, to protect people’s rights across our country. It covers all 9 protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010.
The EHRC updates to the Code reflect changes in the law since 2011, including the Supreme Court clarification on the definition of sex for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. Other changes include:
new protections for women whose menopause has a significant impact on their everyday life
updates to reflect legislative changes on same-sex marriage
clarification that women who breastfeed are also protected from harassment
A number of other changes were made as part of updating the 2011 Code of Practice across all protected characteristics, including highlighting protections for disabled people, and advice on pregnancy and maternity discrimination as well as age discrimination.
Breaking down the barriers to opportunity is at the heart of this government’s mission for national renewal. By clearly setting out the law across all protected characteristics, the draft Code will help organisations make sure that everyone has a fair shot in life.

Haven’t read it yet so i’ll celebrate (or not) once i see what it says

Hurrah it’s here at last

There’s some really weird stuff that goes on in toilets. That’s why a lot of provision has closed. Some of the cleaners’ stories are horrifying.

Individual cubicles really don't make the most sense. Look at the many posts by KeepToiletsSafe, some of which are on this thread, to see why - primarily safety for people who have medical conditions, or are attacked in these enclosed spaces.

But also, men piss on the seats, take used sanpro out of bins to masturbate into, masturbate on seats, install cameras... I don't want to use the same cubicles as men, thank you very much.

Amidst all the meaningless cries of ‘transphobia’ people forget that until recent years, women were the ones most likely to support trans identifying males. Generally we’re the ones brought up to ‘be kind’ and don’t tend to go around kicking the shit out of people we don’t like - it’s violent males who do that. I know I felt sympathy for the males I know who felt they were ‘born in the wrong body’. It was only when the trans rights agenda achieved things like males in women’s sport, men in women’s prisons and refuges and the transing of children (to name but a few examples) that woman have pushed back. Hell, they’ve even tried to change the language so that the word ‘woman’ no longer means ‘adult human female’.

We’ve pushed back because we have lost important things due to this ideology. The world has become more physically dangerous to us. Some of us have lost jobs, reputations, friends and family members. A lot of us are spending what money we can on funding court cases, and there are women whose entire lives have been upended because a tiny percentage of the population want to say they can change sex. None of this has happened because we have some sort of personal objections to men wearing dresses or calling themselves Sally, but because we still need our stuff, for ourselves, the same as we always have. Many of us would have supported trans people in campaigning for their own spaces, but that bridge is burnt now. So here we find ourselves in 2026 waiting for our weaselly fucking government to confirm that sex is biological, and it’s utterly ridiculous.

They've not thought it through, just "solved" what they see as their immediate problem. I'm just guessing though.

I freely admit it is professional speak for "I can't be bothered dealing with this, or be willing to put my name to a date for completion.". There was a lot of that (still is) in HE finance and audit.

I have moved on to private sector now, but the tactics are roughly the same, just called something different. Honestly, the things we have to agree to just to make a living...😬

It is almost certainly illegal though. It means the men have access to much more provision (all of it) than women (half of it) and if they need single-sex provision at all they'd have to make a case for why it's a "proportionate means to a legitimate end" that the men need single-sex provision while women don't.

I know a lot of men who feel deeply uncomfortable with women (whether they're transmen or just women who skip the queue by going to the men's), who feel very uncomfortable with it and hate going anywhere where there's unisex toilets.

Obviously, they don't feel threatened liek women do, but they certainly don't like it. This is all ages of men from 20s to 80s. My grandad, in particular, was horrified when he came face to face with a woman in a restaurant loo recently!

Because people on MN want to say that most trans identifying men are sex offenders.

I don’t think anyone on MN has said this, though you’re not the first to assert it. I bet you can’t find any evidence to back up this claim.

It doesn’t work so well when the teenage girls wanting to be boys gets mentioned

Posters on FWR are consistently concerned and dismayed about the extraordinary increase in the numbers of these girls, and the physical and emotional harms caused.

I don’t think you can have been reading with any attention.

The line of least resistance for the university as the ladies is the one that the trans people predominantly want to use.

I'm assuming that the men aren't bothered one way or the other as to who uses theirs so it's still in situ.

Maybe we could send all policy writers off for training on a "Due Course". Like buying them a Round Tuit. 😉

I don't know if it's still the case, but the rape counselling service in my town used to have a male service, a trans service, and a female service (which included transwomen), so men had the option of three different services (including a single-sex one), but women who needed single-sex had none. Absolutely infuriating.

Will this have any impact on the City of London’s decision to keep the women’s bathing pond accessible to trans women (so men)? That made me so bloody cross. There’s a man’s pond, a mixed pond and now a second mixed pond. Fuck us women, eh?