Hundreds of firms warn new guidance on single sex spaces is ‘unworkable’ and would cause ‘significant economic harm’

[IwantToRetire]

More than 650 organisations have urged Bridget Phillipson to ‘take immediate action to prevent these proposals from moving forward’

“We, the undersigned businesses and organisations, are writing to express our deep concern at proposals seeking to enforce blanket, mandatory exclusion of trans people from gendered spaces and services.

“The proposals made in the EHRC’s draft Code of Practice under the Equality Act would have serious and far-reaching consequences for UK businesses, our employees, and our customers.

“Many of us have spent years building inclusive environments where all customers and staff feel safe and welcome. These proposals would tell us to act in ways that directly contradict those commitments; undermining trust, damaging reputations, and risking the loss of valued staff and customers.”

They also express concern that the proposals would put them at “constant risk of complaints and litigation from multiple directions”, as well as forcing “business staff into the unacceptable role of ‘gender police’”.

“Such practices are not only deeply invasive, but likely impossible to implement without breaching Article 8 of The Human Rights Act, which protects rights to privacy, and risking discriminating against valued trans customers and colleagues”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/supreme-court-trans-single-sex-spaces-b2826924.html

So women's rights are less important than commercial compliance.

It is unfortunate that EHRC haven't updated their employment guidance which would have prevented this to some extent , however I fail to see how it is unworkable

How would it be unworkable when businesses have either got male and female toilets or are small and have a single mixed sex toilet.

Everyone is either male or female whether they want to be or not.

“Many of us have spent years building inclusive environments where all customers and staff feel safe and welcome..."

Liars, they just changed the signs on the doors, now all they have to do is change them back.

It's seems like as cry bulling and emotional blackmail are not working any more, they're trying economic blackmail now.

If they'd rather placate 'trans people' than women, then they're not very inclusive, are they?

I know we've been in this fight a long time but every now and again I'm taken aback at just how much contempt & disregard organisations, public bodies and companies have for women

all this so men can larp as women

all this so they don't have to tell said larping men no

all this angst and but it's soooo haaaaard over things that were perfectly normal 10 years ago

it's not hard, just fucking do it you utter cowardly bastards

In other words they can't be arsed spending the time and money involved and want to blame everyone else for it.

I think this is it, as well as not wanting the bother of making changes or even improvement to facilities, services.

That they think the important segment of society is the Rainbow Coalition.

And think that if it came to it few people would stand up for women's rights, and that women would be expected to join the be kind response.

Not welcoming and inclusive to the customers and staff who want single sex spaces.

I see Lush is one of two “big” names mentioned. I think it’s Tanya de Grunwald who has already predicted Lush won’t survive the gender wars.

Small cafés and pubs? Well a bar is one place I really would want single sex toilets and small cafés almost always have one or two mixed sex toilets anyway.

These are all places that employ students and young people looking for first jobs aren’t they. They may eventually come to regret taking on staff who are forcing their unpopular views on customers, I suspect.

Do lush have public changing rooms and toilets?

They also didn't build an inclusive environment where all their customers felt safe because women and girls forced to share changing facilities with men are neither safe or included

Hi, Spaniard here (living in the UK) for a while. Our laws regarding bathrooms in public spaces changed. couple of years ago. Nowadays it's all ONE big bathroom with lots of closed toilets, the old fashioned model of two bathrooms (one for men and another for women) is gone fir good. Mens urinals are gone too (now they need to pee in a toilet). Obviously not all businesses/bars in spain have changed their bathrooms into one, many of them still keep the old two bathroom model.

Did the earth shake? No.Are we outraged at this? Not the slightest, we have more important things to worry.

signed: a spaniard totally fine with sharing a bathroom with guys.

A thousand times this.

I knew there would be huge pushback against the SC ruling and suspected there would be many more battles to come but I'm still shocked by the quite frankly fucking insulting "reasons" why the law as already is, is not being enforced.

But as has been pointed out over and over, who exactly is going to make them comply because it doesn't look like anyone will...

They should have consulted women before making the changes in the first place. Boo hoo.

Fine, I'm glad you're OK with it, but not all women are, for a number of different reasons, and you dont get to decide for them, sorry. I mean, it's the law anyway, to provide toilets for each sex.

I gather they must have spent money on this? Apparently the organisations that are declaring problems don’t want to. Far easier just to keep as is and everyone to use the loos for their sex.

We also have laws which include single sex in new buildings (plus unisex) plus many more re health and safety and discrimination.

Who are these companies?

So you don't care so you don't care about how anyone feels about it? How 'kind' and progressive of you.
Are you male or female?

It's the law in your country, but not in mine. I haven't heard any spanish women complaining, I think we just don't care. There was no referendum for this (lol), things started to get a bit conplicated with all this creating another bathroom for trans ans whatnot so the goverment got fed up and created a one bathroom for everyone: men, women, trans etc...

So far no complaints from the public.

Well, ‘Louise’. You crack on sharing with the guys that don’t mind. In fact you can offer your services as a human shield for all those thwarted men out there so desperate to get in the ladies but now barred.

I am not comfortable sharing with the opposite sex and nor are the other female AND male members of my family.

I'm a female.

I would suggest you read around this rather more. Your confidence in these changes is likely to come come from a lack of exposure to relevant data and personal good fortune.

In the UK in 2018, following a Freedom of Information request, The Times (and other media organisations subsequently) reported that unisex changing rooms at public swimming pools increase the risk of assault on women and girls (Gilligan, 2018). The statistics indicated that “just under 90 per cent of complaints regarding changing room sexual assaults, voyeurism and harassment are about incidents in unisex facilities” (Gilligan, 2018). Further, statistics from this request indicate that in 2017–18 in the UK, there were 134 reported incidents, and 120 of these occurred in mixed sex changing rooms, while only 14 occurred in single-sex changing rooms (Gilligan, 2018).

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/submissions/88059/0033%20Australian%20Feminists%20for%20Women%27s%20Rights%20(AF4WR).pdf

Dr Vicky Lister, a research fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of Kent, confirms that the cases we hear about represent the tip of an iceberg. Many that come to light have gone undetected for years – and few result in prosecution. In 2020, out of more than 10,000 reported cases, fewer than 600 reached court. As part of her PhD, Lister interviewed men in UK prisons for voyeurism offences (there are no women serving time for this crime). Many had used covert cameras, including one disguised as a shampoo bottle in a public shower. “It’s scary, isn’t it?” she says. “As soon as you start digging, you start to realise. The men I interviewed were saying: ‘Everyone’s probably been a victim at some point.’” Research on prevalence of voyeuristic behaviour is patchy. “A population study in Sweden suggests a lifetime prevalence of voyeurism of 11.5%,” says Lister, “but smaller non-population studies across lots of different countries, including the UK, generally estimate higher Even [such estimates] are likely to be an underrepresentation, as there’ll be people who won’t admit it to a researcher.” There’s every reason to believe that the technology now available to facilitate this will lead more to do it. One study in Canada found that 79% of participants would engage in voyeuristic behaviours if there was assurance they would not be caught.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/27/secret-spy-cameras-voyeurism-uk

Sorry to hear that.

I'm so glad I don't live in Spain.

Bully for you. However, your lack of worry about who you share a toilet with does not give you the right to make that same choice for all other women. Are you so lacking in imagination that you cannot imagine any woman for whom sharing a single sex space with a man could be traumatic, or in some other way problematic?

Fortunately, in the UK, the law says that no woman has to share a single sex space with a man, however he identifies.

a- change the signs back
b - take legal action against the muppetsthat told you lies.

Sorted.