On 17th December there was a full-day permission hearing in our case against the City of London over the Hampstead ponds. A decision on whether the case can go forward is expected in January.
The permission hearing was held because the City of London, rather than defend the lawfulness of its policy of allowing men into the women’s pond, is trying to put up procedural barriers to the policy even being questioned.
It says that our claim is out of time because it has been following a gender self-ID policy since 2017. At the same time, it argues that our claim is premature because it is planning to change the policy for the Hampstead ponds next year following a consultation. It also argues that Sex Matters doesn’t have standing and that instead of answering our claim, individual women should bear the burden of bringing cases.
We say that this kind of squirming shouldn’t allow the City of London to duck and dive its way out of defending its policy and complying with the Equality Act.
If it is confident that its policy based on gender identity is lawful and doesn’t result in sex discrimination or harassment, it should defend that policy. It is in everyone’s interest to understand whether it is lawful to provide a service for women that includes men with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.
Full article at https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/sex-and-the-city-of-london/