Following his installation into number 10, new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reportedly planning to make changes to the Equality Act 2010. In a report released by The Telegraph, Sunak is planning to review the Act thoroughly to "make it clear that sex means biological sex rather than gender." As it stands, the Equality Act protects people from discrimination, including prejudices based off a person's sex and/or "gender reassignment."
Transgender people, some of the most underrepresented and most vulnerable people in the UK, are protected under these rights which afford them legal protection. Currently transgender people have access to same-sex spaces and facilities like homeless shelters. Trans people are protected under the Equality Act, regardless if they have undergone medical treatment for transitioning or hold a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). Trans people are often referred to as "self-identifying".
The Telegraph also reported: “It would also mean clarifying that self-identification for transgender people does not have legal force, meaning transgender women have no legal right to access women-only facilities.”
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Jolyon Maugham, the director of the Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation that uses the law to protect the interests of the public, took to Twitter after the report was published to raise his concerns.
"What will the Tories do once cis women are made 'safe' by banning trans women from women's bathrooms? They'll need a new scapegoat, one where legacy media is unlikely to be so unified," he said.
"Changing the Equality Act to remove legal protections from trans people whilst leaving them with that space is no easy task. I am not complacent. What is being done to trans people in the United Kingdom is awful. I have no words, I am afraid, to describe my anger and my shame. All I can give is my energy and my solidarity."
Earlier this year Rushi Sunak said in a speech that he would plan to "review" the Equality Act, determined to "end the brainwashing", according to Pink News.
He said: "We are determined to end the brainwashing, the vandalism and the finger-pointing. Too often, existing legislation is used to engage in social engineering to which no one has given consent. The worst offender in this regard is the 2010 Equality Act, conceived in the dog days of the last Labour government. It has been a Trojan horse that has allowed every kind of woke nonsense to permeate public life. It must stop. My government would review the act to ensure we keep legitimate protections while stopping mission creep.”
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