Hackney Mayor urges government to reject new guidance on single-sex spaces
Mayor Zoë Garbett has called on government to change course on guidance that puts transgender people at risk.
Mayor of Hackney Zoë Garbett has urged the government to reject cruel and unfeasible guidance on how single-sex spaces should be managed due to its impact on transgender people.
In a letter to Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson, Mayor Garbett and Cabinet Lead for Equalities Cllr Zlotowitz called for the government to reject the guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission which sets out how organisations should apply a supreme court ruling on the definition of sex.
"At this critical juncture, we have written to the Secretary of State to urge the government to change course on the EHRC guidance, which is not only unfeasible but cruel.
"The government's own equality impact assessment acknowledges this guidance will put trans people into real physical risk. It will also consolidate a system of public segregation.
"Hackney is a borough built on diversity, resistance and community. The EHRC guidance is in direct contradiction with those values, and we intend to do everything we can as a council and borough to stand with trans people, in principle and practice."
Zoë Garbett, Mayor of Hackney
Read the letter in full.