Last week the Women and Equalities Select Committee recommended EHRC write a new Code of Practice covering single sex exemptions. This article sets out exactly what needs to be considered.

[JackyHolyoake]

Highly recommended read:

fairplayforwomen.com/single-sex

Agreed Pencils, this secrecy does no-one any favours.

Also need to push for a strengthening of the right to exclude even holders of a GRC where necessary.

Thank you Maya for an excellent analysis and Jacky for answering my question.

I think there is a lot to play for in just getting the guidance clear, and making sure that organisations and service users understand that a sign or policy that says "women only" means just that.

An organisation that provides a service just for women has no obligation to provide a service for men. And an organisation that provides seperate services for both sexes only needs to make reasonable provision for those who dont want to share with their own sex (like having a unisex/single occupancy option ).

There will always be people who try to get away with breaking the rules, but it's important to be clear what the entitlements are.

No separate case is needed for excluding disabled males, older males, gay males, Catholic males, Jewish males, atheist males, or any other males from a women’s single sex service. It makes sense therefore that males with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment are also excluded in the same way as all other males. People who have legally changed sex can also be excluded, since it is not someone’s legal sex, but their actual physical sex which has the potential to make others uncomfortable.

This bit is FAB!

An organisation that provides a service just for women has no obligation to provide a service for men

This is a really important point. Why are people trying to convince us that Women’s Aid should be diverting funds and resources to support vulnerable males? And why are Women’s Aid buying it for fucks sake?

The granting of a GRC should give people the Protected Category of Gender Reassignment under the EA, that even if a GRC were now given on a self-ID basis, that would be fine. Then they will be protected from discrimination due to their gender reassignment.

What needs to be urgently changed is the amending of the sex marker on a birth certificate. There is no jusification for that.

Allowing a change of a sex marker conflates two separate categories, and has now left us in a position where there is no longer a single record anywhere of a person's actual SEX. Therefore, no way of ever "proving" legally who is a transwoman and who is a woman.