Changing rooms and toilets can legally be limited to a single sex, watchdog rules
CHANGING rooms and toilets can legally be limited to a single sex, a watchdog said yesterday — in a huge boost for women’s rights.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said that trans people can be excluded.
But it added that providers’ reasons for doing so must be “justifiable and proportionate”.
The move follows uncertainty over whether services such as refuges for female rape victims are allowed to exclude trans people who were born male.
The EHRC has now clarified the position.
The guidance will have ramifications for hospitals, retailers, hospitality and sports clubs which have all been under pressure from the trans lobby.
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The EHRC said they must show they have taken trans people’s views into account.
It makes it clear that a gym can legally limit communal changing rooms to a single sex as long as a gender neutral room is provided.
Other services which can legally exclude trans people include women’s fitness classes.
EHRC chair Baroness Faulkner said: “Our mission is to protect the rights of everyone. There is no place for discrimination.”