Ban trans women from single-sex spaces, equality watchdog to say

[Igneococcus]

Top story on the online version of the Times, I assume the headline should read from female single sex spaces, rather than all single sex spaces:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/d7488b47-44e2-4a75-b0d8-97655b351574?shareToken=78996068d667d20d5a1593520907c7c8

Nobody in all my life as an above average tall woman or girl has ever mistaken me for a man or a boy. Never, even when I had short hair.
You do come across as very desperate, Bee.

I have. And the moment I turned around or spoke they recognised that I was female - and apologised. No harm done to me. No need for any birth certificate or chromosome test. Not even a genital inspection so loved by MRAs. Because trans-IDed men may successfully deceive people in still photos, but movement and voice deceive nobody except the man trying to deceive women.

Just reposting the Telegraph article from up thread

https://archive.ph/QUyYX

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/08/08/trans-activists-to-fight-government-guidance-ehrc/

In case anyone doesn't want to follow the link. They'll have to watch themselves if they go beyond just ignoring the law by, I dunno, harassing women for their birth certificates or vandalising women's spaces they're going to be in a world of trouble and they won't win any friends.

"war"

Interesting choice of words.

Yes, It's possible someone might have mistaken me for a man from behind and then quickly realized I wasn't once I turned around or moved or spoke. I have never been questioned.
The thing is, if it were necessary for my fellow human females to be able to feel safe in female only spaces to show proof of my sex I'd be willing to bring ID or birth certificate with me. I would also loudly every time I have to show it mention that it's because of transwoman and TRAs trying to remove women's boundaries that we are in this mess, not because of women.

...trans people's right to privacy

What privacy?

Such insane nonsense. How can trans people demand the right to privacy when they put their private world out into the public view?

Jamie Wallis's right to privacy is the right to identify and dress as whatever he wants in the privacy of his own home, and not be doxxed/outed and mocked for it. It is not the right to coerce everybody else's speech when he chooses to identify and dress as whatever he wants in public.

Violating trans people's right to privacy and what about the privacy of women and indeed men? Where does that feature Jolyon? Oh, of course the Jolyon belief and that of trans activists is that the only people who matter or have human rights are trans people, a rude awakening awaits.

well yes. But also the idea this is the beginning… women have been fighting for their rights for a long time. This particular battle has been going on for quite a while. I suppose they didn’t notice while they were colonising our spaces that we were fighting back.

Ooh maybe you can get your mates in the Reform party to take up your cause. I’m sure Nigel will be delighted to help.

I think one of the problems with this thread, is that the Times have misrepresented the issue.

What other papers are reporting, is that the EHRC isn't going to give in to the backlash that TRAs are ramping up, after they published their interim guidelines.

So using the Times headline is only giving groups like the Good Law Project campaign "credibility".

So there is no story about the EHRC imposing anything.

This is about the EHRC sticking by the Supreme Court ruling.

It looks like (which is unusual for the Times) that they have fallen for some TRA misinformation.

Just as they spread false rumours about the EHRC throwing away survey results from trans groups.

We really dont need to help the TRAs spread their misinformation.

Although it looks like the Telegraph is also willing to put the TRAs slant

‘Let the war begin’ – Trans activists vow to fight government guidance
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/08/08/trans-activists-to-fight-government-guidance-ehrc/

The Times headlines for trans articles often misrepresent the article, it's a frequent complaint in the comments.

Didn't know that!

Ah yes, ‘Sophie Molly’. Even thrown out by the Scottish Greens for being too extreme..

https://x.com/terfcopcat/status/1837181530365644936?s=46&t=fMjCB4vFfh_N6mYE72mhHw

I've been looking at the bonkers stuff said on twitter in the last few days.

Sophie Molly hand down wins the batshit extremist award. In a tough field featuring India.

In the last 24 hours: Gender critical women are terrorists, mob mentality, trans apartheid...

Also retweeted a comment saying that JKRowling had demanded that the M&S worker was sacked. I checked. This is a lie. She never said this.

I msut admit that it makes me quite depressed and angry, that what had seemed like a few papers were beginning to understand about women's sex based rights.

And that the Supreme Court ruling had led to some sensible arguements.

But here we are again with all papers happily reprinting the reactionary TRA its not fair rubbish.

Its easy enough to say the facts.

There was the ruling.

The EHRC put out guidelines.

Many people (including by statement if not action) the Labour Party implied yes the ruling was the ruling.

ie that sex means biological sex and therefore anyting women only, whether toilets, changing rooms, or support services were only for biological women

And now without any effort, the TRAs have got all the papers joining in the frenzy of somehow this all being sprung on defenceless trans people.

Its is as usual so disrespectful of women and women's rights.

Plus the fact that 99.9% of those rampaging on aren't even covered as they aren't real trans people. They are mainly self identifiying trendy sheep keeping up with the fashion.

And somehow this fake concoction is thought to have the same reality and rights as women regaining their sex based rights.

The EHRC chief has put out a statement correcting the Times article from the other day. He says the Times were being premature in stating that the EHRC have already determined what will be in the guidance.....

Our Chief Executive, John Kirkpatrick has written a letter to the Times in response to media coverage about the content and process of updating our code of practice for services, public functions and associations.
John Kirkpatrick, Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:
Your article 'Ban trans women from single-sex spaces, equality watchdog to say' (August 7) is premature in reporting that the EHRC has determined what will be in the guidance we intend to submit to the Minister for Women and Equalities in the coming weeks.
The article quotes extensively from the draft guidance issued for consultation in May. The purpose of consultation is to help us improve the text of the Code of Practice so that it is as clear and helpful as possible to those seeking to comply with the law. We have not decided what, if any, changes to make to the draft text, because we are still in the process of analysing the over 50,000 responses we have received.
Far from dragging our feet as alleged in your editorial piece on Wednesday, we are doing that at pace. Our timeline for analysis, while swift, is appropriate given the clear legal framework established by the Supreme Court and the urgent need from public bodies for clarity.
Our use of supervised AI technology alongside expert legal analysis is a responsible and widely-used approach that ensures we can give proper consideration to all responses whilst delivering the guidance that public bodies urgently need.
There has been clear demand ever since the Supreme Court judgment from public bodies and others for guidance from us, as the regulator of the Equality Act, on how to interpret the law. We recognise our responsibility to respond to that. But it is right that we consult on the guidance we are proposing and right that we consider the responses to that consultation carefully. That is what we are doing. We are examining the responses carefully and will incorporate changes that are necessary and consistent with the law into our final draft.
The guidance we submit to the Minister will reflect the law as determined by the Supreme Court, which we are obliged to interpret and explain clearly for those who must comply with it.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/ehrc-chief-executive-responds-times-article-code-practice-consultation

That Times headliner is just awful
It reads like trans people will be banned from all single sex spaces when that is not the case

Transwomen can use men’s
Trans men can use womens

They are single SEX spaces. Trans is gender based not Sex based

I hate papers constantly stirring things up

Lol at "let the war begin" the TERF wars have been going on for yeeeeears. This is the end game.

It’s baity, but not entirely wrong because (eg) trans identifying men could lawfully be banned from both women’s services (always, obviously) and men’s spaces if their presence would cause distress because they look too feminine.

The guidance will say they should not be left with no service to use but it’s accurate to say they could be banned from both women’s and men’s services.

Trans Reddit UK isn’t happy, is it?

No, but look out everyone! They are threatening to publish "something weighty on Mumsnet in the coming days." Odds on it's a giant turd though.

It’s interesting to be ‘left without a service’ has come up.

This is interesting because it is a common complaint from disabled people in having any access to a toilet. Then you have the added complication that’s even if they do have a service, they don’t have an option to have single sex.

In schools, the guidance from the DfE is unisex or single sex designs. In single sex toilets, the current guidance is for privacy with a 5mm door gap. This leaves thousands of children without a safe service. I have had parents very worried as they try and get their child’s medical conditions under control and send them to school knowing they could collapse, without anyone knowing, in the place their child will go to if they feel ill. In the moments before a hypo, seizure or stroke people don’t have the awareness to pull a cord or try to get out of a cubicle.

Of course, because of vandalism, many places have closed their public toilets down - so no one has a service!

Edit: also ‘misuse’ closes toilets down. This is sex, drugs, rough sleeping.

Someone should do an investigative piece into trans subreddits. There’s a lot of material there, from teens and even tweens being signposted to dodgy hormones, to lots of “gender euphoria”, plus the usual death threats to women and politicians they disagree with.

They should be reported to IPSO, I think that’d be breaking the very first of the editors’ guidelines on not being misleading including in headlines.

I’ve never understood how kids openly buying dodgy hormones off the internet and injecting themselves in order to self-medicate AND publicly sharing how to do it, isn’t a massive scandal.

https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/1mlm8bx/are_we_wrong

Interesting post on Transgender UK subreddit "Are we wrong?"