From today (5 August), publicly accessible single-sex spaces including lavatories, changing areas, and support services such as rape crisis centres in England, Scotland, and Wales will be required to operate based on an individual’s sex recorded at birth. The move follows updated instructions initially issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) back in June.

Under the new framework, trans individuals are directed to use either unisex amenities or those corresponding to the sex they were assigned at birth, rather than options aligned with their gender identity. The guidance carries no legal enforcement powers, but it applies firm pressure on companies, public bodies, and voluntary groups to limit single-sex provisions to biological sex, in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Controversy and Condemnation

The revised code has provoked strong objections from campaigners and politicians alike. In July, the Scottish Greens called upon the Westminster government to withdraw the guidance, describing it as “authoritarian and cruel.” Kate Nevens, the party’s equalities spokesperson, warned of damaging consequences for trans people who have long used these facilities without problems.

“Trans people desire the same ordinary life as everyone else – free from bias, discrimination, and harm. Instead, this guidance will encourage intrusive scrutiny, foster suspicion, and render daily existence riskier,” Nevens said in remarks reported by the National.

The Good Law Project has likewise denounced the measure, describing it as detrimental and likely to create divisions. “The directive will marginalise trans individuals and push them away from shared spaces,” the organisation said.

In a statement issued on 15 July, the Good Law Project added: “The guidance acknowledges that offering single-sex services strictly on the basis of ‘biological sex’ is likely to produce indirect discrimination against trans people. Yet rather than permitting organisations to adopt trans-inclusive arrangements, it treats trans people as a separate category, implying they must rely on distinct ‘third’ facilities instead of the standard ones available to men and women.”

The group further argued that this approach would generate social stigma and pose a risk of exposing trans people’s status against their wishes.

Speaking to the BBC News Channel, Alexandra Parmar-Yee, director of Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, voiced alarm at the directive’s impact. “Trans people will be excluded from the services they rely on and left feeling unwelcome and vulnerable in public settings. Our lives will become more constrained and more fragile,” she said.