Although I applaud the audacity and bravery of the women who decided to identify as men and use the mens' changing room at the Dulwich Leisure Centre, sadly their campaign is misguided and is likely to lead to harm to cisgendered women.
Hm. Something tells me you don't applaud it.
The only law in England and Wales that gives someone who was born male the right to use female spaces, such as changing rooms, is the Equality Act.
This is just claptrap. There is no "right to use female spaces." There is a provision that service providers can restrict access to their services, including by sex. Even if you are generous enough to accept that the "right to use female spaces" is just an internet shorthand rather than a fundamental misunderstanding of the law, the relevant Act is the Gender Recognition Act 2004, specifically s.9(1). The Equality Act prevents victimisation, harassment or discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived gender reassignment, while the GRA affirms gender (or sex) as the acquired gender (or sex).
On the face of it the act only applies to those who propose to undergo, are undergoing, or have undergone a process to reassigned their gender.
What. In the actual TEXT of it the Act applies to those who are perceived as those things as well as those who are actually engaged in gender reassignment - so if a masculine presenting woman or a long haired man is discriminated against because someone thinks they are transitioning it is not necessary that they are in fact transitioning for the Act to protect them.
To understand how it is interpreted though you need to look at the case law. The leading case is Croft v Royal Mail and although it applied to an earlier statute in a slightly different context, it is still good law. This case held that a transwomen would only acquire the right to use the women's toilet at work when she was significantly advanced in her transition.
Croft v Royal Mail predates both the GRA and the EA, you massive numpty.
So the law today does not allow men (or women) to self-id their way into the opposite gender's changing room. And the government has stated that it is not going to change the Equality Act so the law in this area will not change.
It may do. The statutory guidance to the EA says that those who have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment (which includes anyone who says they are planning to) should be treated as their preferred gender where possible. There are sex exemptions but they are not widely understood or used.
And this is exactly what the Man Friday campaign is demonstrating: that whatever the EA may say, the way it is applied in practice is that nobody feels able to challenge self-ID even when the person doing it is plainly of the opposite sex to the one they claim.
And as far as I know, no pervert has succeeded in using the Equality Act to access a changing room in the 7 years that the Equality Act 2010 has been law.
Maybe not a changing room, but there have been several instances of it happening in prisons, arguably more serious given the vulnerabilities of women in prison.
The government has announced however that it is considering simplifying the process of changing legal gender under the Gender Recognition Act. However, and this is the crucial point, if a man changes his legal gender to female it does not give him access to female spaces.
However, and this is the crucial point..... yes it does. See s.9(1) GRA.
There is a myth that with self-identification a man would be allowed to say that he is a women - say on Friday afternoons. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Except that this already happens: see Pippa / Philip Bunce, who identifies as a woman part-time and on the strength of it was awarded an award for being a woman in finance. Even HE doesn't claim to be a woman full time!
If the process in Ireland is followed a legal instrument - a statutory declaration - has to be filled out in front of a solicitor or other suitably qualified person. And the wording has to say he has a "settled and solemn intention to live in the preferred gender of female for the rest of [his] life". And lying on a statutory declaration in the UK is a criminal offence - punishable with up to 2 years in prison under the Perjury Act.
The same process as a stat dec for a change of name or to say that no honest you never received that speeding fine. You're not filling me with confidence here.
If a man were to change to his legal gender to female and sneak his way into the women's changing room it would still not prevent him from committing the offences of Voyeurism and Exposure. Both of these offences are drafted in gender neutral terms.
But not committed in gender neutral terms, I'm sure you'd agree.
Not only is the Man Friday campaign unnecessary, it is positively harmful. The constant stream of articles in the media saying that men can identify as women on a Friday and use the women's changing rooms have two effects. Firstly, people who work in leisure centres believe this to be the law and stop challenging creepy guys trying to access the women's changing room. Secondly, it gives perverts the idea that they have the legal right to perform perverted acts. (they don't and these acts remain criminal offences)
People in leisure centres already believe this to be the law. And seriously don't even pretend that sex pests take one look at Amy's pink swimming cap and forget that sexual assault is a crime. That's one of the most disingenuous arguments I think I've ever heard.
And this is not just a theoretical analysis - this actually happened in Seattle, Washington.
Which has what exactly to do with the law in England & Wales?
After a prolonged Republican media campaign stating that a new law allowed perverts to access the women's changing room, a man took them at their word and, claiming rights under the new law, decided to change with the women. And the sad thing is that the staff confused by the media coverage did nothing to stop him. But the kicker is that the new law did not allow a man to self-id his way into the women's changing room. And this is not my legal analysis - this is the legal analysis of the Washington State Human Rights Commission.
I'm not sure that what a new law the other side of the world did or didn't allow for will make any difference to the new law proposed right here.
So in summary women's spaces are not threatened by either the current law or the government's proposed changes. However, if the Man Friday campaign plants the idea into people's minds that men can self-id their way into women's changing rooms, then expect to see perverts take them up on the idea.
That is one of the worst legal summaries I've seen in a while. If someone shines a light on a lacuna in the law, it is not the torch-holder's sole responsibility to repair it.