Delay on single sex spaces "does trans people a disservice" - Falkner

[IwantToRetire]

Falkner, who was the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) when the judgment was delivered, said transgender people who had expressed distress over its implications would be reassured if they could see the guidance.

The EHRC handed the code to ministers seven months ago. Falkner said the commission could not release it independently: “It was the first question I asked when I realised there was a delay, ‘Why can’t we publish it?’ I was told by the lawyers it’s now owned by the government.”

She said she was no longer “baffled” by the failure to act and had concluded ministers were running down the clock to avoid upsetting some MPs before local elections in May.

“I think the government is just acting in bad faith,” she said. “They have a lot of MPs who are pro-trans activists, and with elections coming up, they don’t want to do anything that might upset … their so-called progressive constituents.”

In a message to Bridget Phillipson, the women and equalities minister, Falkner said: “Follow the law. Don’t invent excuses. This is about women’s rights, ordinary people’s rights, who have gone to court, lost their jobs, lost their livelihoods.”

Full article https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/trans-delay-single-sex-spaces-guidance-xtcvg2qjw

And at https://archive.is/e043Q

Just adding this here as the article is a week old, but I think a good example of how Janice Turner's articles are really good at getting to the heart of the issue.

Gender ideologues run rings round Bridget Phillipson

The heart of the problem is the Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO), a Cabinet Office unit set up in 2024 by Anneliese Dodds. Kemi Badenoch, who held the equalities brief until then, was frustrated by obstructive officials who advised her, for example, against meeting Keira Bell, a detransitioner and key figure in exposing the Tavistock gender-identity development service malpractice. Badenoch bypassed them with a small, trusted group of officials, which meant she could act decisively when blocking the Scottish government’s self-ID law.

But Labour’s return to government brought an activist civil servant resurgence. This week Phillipson finally met For Women Scotland (FWS), catalysts of the judgment. They asked Phillipson why in November a KC briefed by her department argued in the High Court that since mothers take young sons into women’s loos, other males could be allowed in. Phillipson told FWS this was a “neutral intervention” to ensure guidance was “legally robust and enforceable”.

The OEO’s deputy director is Ollie Entwistle, who spent nine years as chair of the civil service Rainbow Alliance working to get government departments higher up Stonewall’s Champions index, which gave points for erasing words such as “mother” or “maternity” from HR policy. It also rewarded letting civil service staff choose facilities based upon gender identity not sex, illegal under 1992 workplace regulations. This, incredibly, is still Cabinet Office policy because it is “waiting for the EHRC guidance”, which doesn’t even apply to employers and is being blocked by Phillipson’s own officials.

A Labour insider tells me the local government minister Steve Reed drafted a letter to all local authorities saying they must update their services in accordance with the ruling. But since this was an equalities matter it was passed to the OEO, which spiked it. OEO officials also invited Mridul Wadhwa, a trans woman forced to resign as head of Edinburgh Rape Crisis for persecuting a female staff member, to meet the equalities minister Olivia Bailey.

Full article https://www.thetimes.com/article/b378f944-55d3-4bd7-908c-2150cde5587d

and https://archive.is/ciyuu

So many TRAs established in positions of power and influence. It’s like having Japanese knotweed.

Its good to be reminded that it isn't just some individual being the problem.

It is about the powers behind the decision makers using their position to forward their political agenda.

And the supposed decision maker having to curry favour with them to maintain a "working relationship" ie to be their puppet.

Frightening to think that at one time both OEO and the EHRC were staffed by trans ideologues.