Mayor of Hackney joins council leaders to continue fight for trans rights

Hackney Council is partnering with five London councils to continue the fight against ‘unworkable and morally unacceptable’ Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on how single-sex spaces should be managed.

Mayor Garbett joined leaders from Lambeth, Lewisham, Haringey, Southwark and Waltham Forest in meeting Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Chair for Equality and Human Right Commission, to make the case for greater protection for trans people. 

The EHRC guidance came into force in August following a Supreme Court judgment last year ruling that “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to sex assigned at birth. The guidance has been widely criticised across communities and service providers alike.

At the time, the group of council leaders argued that new rules on access to single-sex spaces will be “harmful to the rights of trans people and will make their exclusion from public life more likely.”

In the meeting, the councils raised a number of issues:

• The need to uphold all equalities duties, including the EHRC’s underestimated costs for implementation of all duties and their Code.
• The EHRC’s duty to monitor the efficacy of both the Act and the Code, and to propose changes where there are issues.
• The EHRC’s unevidenced claim that cis women overwhelmingly want trans-exclusionary spaces.
• How the EHRC is addressing the misinformation that they have identified spreading about the Code of Practice, leading to non-proportionately exclusionary practices. 
• The Government’s Impact Assessment stating that trans people face greater risks of harm as a result of this code of practice. 

 These are set out in a follow up letter to Dr Stephenson.

“Our councils stand united: the EHRC Code of Practice and its impact on trans+ residents is both practically unworkable and morally unacceptable.

“As council leaders responsible for local services, we are already seeing significant problems. Real harms are being inflicted on our trans+ residents and staff, as well as people with any perceived gender non-conformity, disabled people and our communities at large.

“This month, we met with the EHRC Chair to raise our concerns. We still have a lot of unanswered questions, which we are seeking urgent clarity on.

“We will not rest until trans+ people have full access to public life, in principle and in practice.”

Zoë Garbett, Mayor of Hackney
Liam Shrivastava, Mayor of Lewisham
Cllr James McAsh, Leader, Southwark
Cllr Paul Perkins, Leader, Waltham Forest
Cllr Tammy Hymas, Deputy Leader, Haringey
Cllr Natalie Kane, Deputy Leader, Lambeth