EHRC Guidance Response

We need your voice now.

The updated EHRC guidance was laid before parliament on 21 May. It has 40 days to be scrutinised and questioned before it is statutory. It means there is very little time, and if ever there was a time that our trans community needs you, it’s now.

The guidance seeks to erase trans, intersex and non-binary people from day to day life. 50,000 medics from the British Medical Association responding the the Supreme Court Ruling advising it was ‘scientifically illiterate; and ‘biologically nonsensical’

We all need to voice our concerns and to ensure there is pushback, scrutiny, and a more inclusive approach. If you want to be a better ally here are some practical things you can do right now:

They are the ones that will be able to push back and challenge this in parliament. Write to them and try to see them face to face in a drop in.

You can find who your MP is HERE

Bimini has created a page collating information and a draft letter you can easily copy and edit to send to your MP. Head to Bimini’s webpage for instructions on what to edit and various ways to access to letter.

Bristol Pride has already written to all our local MPs and will continue to apply pressure and ensure that Bristol MP’s stand up for all our community. Please add your voice too.

For the draft letter please read it and edit as follow:

• Replace [MP’s name] with the name from the Parliament site.
• Replace [your full name and postal address] at the top. MPs cannot respond without a verified constituent address.
• Replace [your identity, if you want to share] with one or two words, or delete the line.
• Replace [one sentence about how this makes you feel] with something specific to you. A name. A friend. A bathroom you stopped using. Make it personal. Specific letters get read. Form letters get filed.
• Sign off with your real name.

Nadia Whittome MP has now also tabled a motion (EDM 240) to disapprove the Code of Practice, which has already received cross-party support. Please ask your MP to support the motion if they haven’t already. We’ve added this to the letter template from our website and you can also find the template for this particular motion via this webpage.

We’ve add the copy of the letter as text at the bottom of this page so you can directly copy it if you are having any issues with the direct copy link.

Calling for a review into strengthening legal protections and clearer enforcement against discrimination, harassment and exclusion. Over 11,000 people have already signed it, which means the government have to respond but 100,000 people signing it means it has to be debated in parliament.

Do not rush any changes. This latest draft will be challenged. Two drafts have already been rejected as both cruel and unworkable with businesses also citing that it would also cause ‘significant economic harm’.  

There is no criminal law prohibiting trans people from gendered spaces such as bathrooms and there are no laws allowing harassment in bathrooms.

You are not legally obliged to become gender police and you are not obligated to legally have gendered spaces. Going full gender neutral is an option. The guidance does not require all services to become single or separate sex. In fact, the starting point is to provide mixed services. Costs to implement are not enough to justify a discriminatory, exclusionary approach according the guidance.

You can also write to your MP as a business / venue to voice your concerns, outline how this negatively impacts your business and customers.

We will update on local events and nationally there is a mass lobby in Westminster, London on the 25 June. (The Date has changed)

Support and engage with local trans groups to listen and hear what’s going on, how it’s impacting members of the community and what events you can get along to and support.

Trans Pride Bristol – Instagram @transpridebristol

Trans Resistance Network – Instagram @transresistancenetwork

Bristol Transfemme Collective – Instagram @bristoltfc

Bristol Leading Against Transphobia – Instagram @transrights.bristol

University of Bristol Trans Society – Instagram @bristoltranssoc

UWE Bristol LGBTQ+ Soc – Instagram @uwelgbt

We cannot stand by silently whilst this is happening, we need to lend our voices, push for more inclusive guidance and ensure businesses and venues know that exclusion is not mandatory.

Stand up for the community and challenge Transphobia.

This wont stop at the trans community.

You can visit our Trans Resources & Support Page for more support services available locally.

Dear [MP’s name],

I am writing as your constituent [your full name and postal address] to ask you to stand with the Trans+, non-binary and LGBT+ community and use your place in Parliament to protect our rights.

The EHRC’s updated Code of Practice was laid in Parliament on 21 May. From everything we have heard about its interpretation of the For Women Scotland Supreme Court ruling, it marks a massive step back for trans and non-binary people.

The Code will effectively bring about a trans+ bathroom ban, but it goes much further. It will limit access to healthcare, housing, women’s groups (even ones that have always been trans-inclusive), social care, domestic violence refuges, gyms, pools and spas.

It will also redefine lesbian and gay relationships under the Equality Act’s sexual orientation provisions. Read together, paragraphs 2.50 and 2.92 of the Code mean that a trans woman in a relationship with a cis woman is no longer protected as a lesbian couple.

As a [your identity, if you want to share]: [one sentence about how this makes you feel].

The EHRC’s draft consultation received over 50,000 responses, many from trans and non-binary people and the people who love them. This Code does not arrive in isolation. It sits inside a wider pattern of removing trans rights.

I am asking you to:
1. Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate and a free vote on this Code.
2. Support EDM 240 and any motion tabled in Parliament objecting to the EHRC Code.
3. Write to the Minister for Women and Equalities and the Prime Minister.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]