Could businesses having to spend £000s reinstating single sex toilets sue those who told them self ID was the law?

[GargoylesofBeelzebub]

Wouldn't it be just desserts if someone sued Stonewall? Would hopefully be the final nail in their coffin.

That, would be glorious!

Maybe Garden Court Chambers would be able to provide some guidance on that 🤔

I’d love them to try though I expect stonewall have a clause in the small print of the contract that says “this is our take on it but you are responsible fir checking the law”

Funnily enough they have added one very very recently. Wonder if they're shitting themselves a bit now it's all coming crashing down? 🤔

I would hope they are. They are hugely responsible for the mess, the body count of women harmed, and now distressed trans people.

I seem to remember in court however they got away with saying if someone employed them to tell them policy but didn't check it was right and legal before implementing it, it was nowt to do with them guv. And technically they are probably right.

I doubt anyone will get to sue. I would hope this will make society as a whole a great deal more cynical and careful about implementing exciting shiny new marketed ideas without engaging their brain and doing a little basic fact checking first.

The problem is that various corporations have sought advice from Stonewall as a box ticking exercise because if they offer staff diversity training then it helps them in any subsequent legal action involving discrimination. They can argue in court that they have taken measures to create a positive environment for LGBQTQ+ staff. The quality of the advice is neither here nor there.

I think that's pretty much what they said in the Alison Bailey tribunal - leaving Garden Court Chambers on the hook whilst Stonewall scuttled off saying essentially it's not our fault they listened to us and acted unlawfully on our advice and insistence -They should have known better.

I agree entirely with Stonewall on that. All these organisations should have known better, it's their own fault.

I doubt there will be legal cases.. it is far more likely that companies will walk away quietly pretending nothing has happened.

Mixed-sex toilets remain perfectly legal. No organisation has to change its building layout.

If an organisation has toilets marked men's and women's, it wouldn't cost anything to change the policy from self-identification to biological sex only. (Of course most of them won't enforce this, but that's another issue.)

There seem to be many complaining this is going to cost them hundreds of thousands. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think Stonewall have always touted themselves as offering advice. I think most companies and organisations say things like we get our advice from a range of sources and then make our own decisions. Certainly that’s what government organisations gave stated.

I think they will go quiet for a while and then try and slither back in. People are still obfuscating and performing on tv about lack of clarity and what about meee!

I’d like to further examination of Stonewalls books tbh. I know they are down a lot of funding but they are still being funded through the public purse in grants if not in fees.

It’s not as simple as that is it.

Workplaces have to offer single sex facilities for example.

It’s also been suggested in the EHRC interim guidance that failure to provide single sex facilities may be indirect sex discrimination

.https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre/interim-update-practical-implications-uk-supreme-court-judgment

Single sex communal toilets at work are compulsory.
Only fully enclosed self-contained rooms can be mixed sex.

Most of the time it will be about merely changing signage back and publishing a lawful policy.

Is there a campaign for them to pay back taxpayer grants after inciting companies to operate illegally? There should be. Should they be prosecuted I wonder.

I would hope the government give LAs funding to help with this as they did when many organisations had to find the money to make buildings accessible for disabled people. Unlike disabled people, the group to be supported this time has large and - well. Once wealthy charities, I think that's changed a bit now, but apparently great public support and sympathy, so fund raising, crowd funding etc should be a good avenue. The law that enforced the creation of disabled toilets caused a lot of moaning and complaining and claims of not being able to afford it, but there were LA people going out to check, explain the law and help with accessing grants (and to check it did actually happen) and it got done quite quickly.

I don't really understand why it would tbh.

The majority of places will have done nothing in the first place and the rest will have used the disabled facilities as their get out clause.

I’ve repeatedly heard people whingeing all over the media for the past week about how impossible it’s going to be to build all the new toilet provision they'll need now, how are cash-strapped councils going to fund it, what a nightmare it all is, on and on and on.

It feels like yet another stick to beat women with as punishment for the SC judgment.