• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Equalities chief defends guidance on trans exclusion from single-sex services

It comes as Boris Johnson has defended his decision to scrap plans to ban trans conversion therapy, arguing it would be harmful for children who have doubts about their gender.

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2022-04-09 12:58
in News
Credit;PA

Credit;PA

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

The head of the equalities watchdog has defended controversial guidance saying transgender people can be legally excluded from single-sex spaces in certain scenarios, and urged calm in the debate.

It comes as Boris Johnson has defended his decision to scrap plans to ban trans conversion therapy, arguing it would be harmful for children who have doubts about their gender.

Mr Johnson claimed the decision did nothing to “diminish our determination to tackle prejudice wherever we can”,

Kishwer Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said activists would not force a change in the guidance issued earlier this week.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Baroness Falkner said: “We do not make the law, but it is our regulatory function to uphold it, independent of government, campaign groups or vested interests.”

Trauma

In the guidance, the first to be set out on this issue, the EHRC said that organisations such as refuges and gyms can legally prevent, limit or modify trans people’s access to single-sex services in some circumstances, such as to prevent trauma, enable privacy or to ensure health and safety.

Organisations must balance the impact on all service users and demonstrate “a sufficiently good reason”, it added.

RelatedPosts

Ministers to launch probe into the BBC’s ‘Islingtonian left-wing bias’

Brits react to new ‘affordable foods’ list

Top Tory STANDS BY fellow party MP convicted of abusing 15-year-old boy

Watch: Murdoch monopoly isn’t taking Aussie election result well

But the decision sparked a backlash from trans groups and LGBT+ charity Stonewall, which said it is likely to cause more confusion and a greater risk of illegal discrimination.

Lady Falkner wrote that despite the “often toxic tone of debate in the media or online”, the British people, “with a characteristic sense of fair play, understand this is a complex issue and that each situation requires a balances approach and careful consideration”.

The EHRC is the regulator of the Equality Act 2010, which protects people against discrimination due to their protected characteristics, including both sex and gender reassignment.

Lady Falkner said: “With nine different protected characteristics to consider, each with their own interests and needs, it is inevitable there will be occasions where some rights overlap.

“It is the EHRC’s role to balance those.

“One such example is the provision of single-sex spaces.

“The law is clear that organisations can sometimes limit access to their services to one sex, just as it’s clear that trans people have the right to live their lives free of discrimination in the gender they identify with”.

She also wrote: “Occasionally, competing rights need not mean conflict”.

Saying that issues of sex and gender identity had dominated discussion since her appointment as EHRC chair in 2020, Lady Falkner called on people, “whatever their sincerely held views, to lower the temperature of debate and work constructively with us to achieve a fairer society for all”.

She said the guidance, which followed pleas for clarity from the Commons Women and Equalities Committee and service providers, was an “effort to help” organisations understand the Equality Act.

The Prime Minister this week said women should have access to single-sex spaces in places such as hospitals and prisons.

In what appeared to be a nod to the guidance from the equalities watchdog, Boris Johnson said: “I also happen to think that women should have spaces, whether it’s in hospitals or prisons or changing rooms or wherever, which are dedicated to women”.

He also said “biological males” should not compete in women’s sports when asked about the decision not to include transgender people in the Government’s proposed ban on conversion therapy.

The Government has faced fierce criticism over a series of U-turns last week on the promised legislation and whether transgender people would be protected by it.

Related: ‘So wrong’: Government’s landmark LGBT+ conference scrapped amid conversion therapy row

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Bar Review – Hutong

UK Weather forecast, Friday 26 November 2021

ITV producer who suffered severe allergic reaction to nuts has returned home

Next four years forecast to be “abnormally hot” by a new high tech weather prediction system

Are smart home security systems actually pretty dumb?

Economic & Political Roundup – May 2020

Theatre Review: HIR, Bush Theatre

Tax scandal: Has Alastair Campbell nailed Brexit question Rishi Sunak should be asked?

Labour odds to win election slashed from 16/1 to 7/1

Watch – Deaf & autistic boy who has ‘no friends’ got over 700 bday cards from strangers

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.