Statement on the Equality and Human Rights interim guidance on single-sex spaces

We are the Trans Legal Clinic, a charity providing vital specialist legal support and advocacy for transgender and gender-diverse people across the country. 

We are incredibly concerned about the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) interim guidance on how organisations should interpret For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] USCK 16, published on the 25 April 2025. 

While we disagree with the judgment itself, we are specifically standing against the interim guidance released by the EHRC, which we believe overreaches the full legal implications of the Supreme Court’s judgment and is not proportionate. Specifically, we are concerned about the EHRC’s guidance that workplaces and services that are open to the public should not permit trans people to use facilities in line with their acquired gender as it is unenforceable. It also has the effect of creating a humiliating, hostile and degrading environment, violating people's dignity in their everyday life. 

From an enforcement perspective, the majority of transgender people are indistinguishable from the broader population. Mandating that trans men and trans women, who may have lived peacefully and happily in their acquired gender for decades, start to use bathrooms that align with their assigned sex at birth would cause distress and discomfort not only to trans people themselves, but also to the people around them. Furthermore, we believe it is important to note that this guidance entirely fails to consider the existence and experience of intersex and non-binary people.

Our concern is that the hard-line, absolutist approach taken by this interim guidance will do significant harm to people in their ability to engage in public life and employment. It is also counter to our fundamental British values of tolerance, pragmatism, and live and let live. To date, there has been no consultation on this guidance and yet people will now be placed in incredibly challenging situations that risk their safety and wellbeing.

We believe that the most sensible and pragmatic approach would be to allow workplaces, services, and businesses to decide appropriate provision of services on a case-by-case basis while the full guidance is being drafted. This is a nuanced issue in which a hard and fast rule creates more problems than it purports to solve. In the longer-term, we urge the government and EHRC to fully consult with the transgender community in the development of the full guidance.

To that end, we are writing to ask for a meeting with the Prime Minister, the Minister for Women and Equalities, and the EHRC Commissioner to discuss a common-sense approach to this issue and to work together to find a practical way forward.  

Olivia Campbell-Cavendish, CEO: "As Founder of the Trans Legal Clinic and as a trans woman myself, I am not only personally appalled by this guidance but also terrified about what this means for the safety of myself and my sisters. 

Like more than 50% of trans women, I have firsthand experience of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and this shocking guidance will put us all at risk. The proposals in this interim guidance are degrading and humiliating to the lives of transgender people and amounts to segregation. 

As an organisation that exists to give trans people a legal voice, we will fight this in our court rooms and do everything we can in our communities to support those that this guidance endangers. I truly believe that most British people support our right to exist, and want a pragmatic and reasonable solution.

As a woman, I cannot fathom the indignity of being forced into a space that puts me at immediate risk of sexual violence."