TransActual report collects testimonies of trans segregation after Supreme Court ruling

TransActual have released a report collecting the testimonies of trans people in the UK who have been impacted by the Supreme Court ruling on the Equality Act earlier this year. As the Canary previously reported:

the UK Supreme Court has ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer exclusively to characteristics assigned at birth – thanks to a campaign by anti-trans campaigners who have mobilised under anti-feminist left hate campaigns and far-right hate movements.

Now, TransActual’s report lays out the sadly inevitable impact the ruling has had for trans and gender non-conforming people. Strategy director for TransActual, Keyne Walker, said:

Today’s report adds yet more harrowing documentary evidence of how this government has terrorised the trans community to an extreme degree, and the toll this has taken on people, families and communities.

TransActual’s testimony

In the report itself, the authors write:

These testimonials were sent to us in the weeks and months after the ruling, and following the publication of “interim guidance” by the ‘Equalities and Human Rights Commission’ (EHRC), which does not, at time of writing, have any legal force and which has been widely condemned as a rollback in the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

Through this, we can get a glimpse of the dark future which the EHRC’s guidance aims to create, and which government seems poised to make a reality.

The testimonies included in the report represent a range of experiences, but are far from all the evidence that TransActual received.

One person who describes themselves as a white trans woman explained:

I have been a regular at [a restaurant] for over 10 years and have never had problems with the staff before. This time when I got up to go to the toilet, I went to the ladies room.

A member of staff saw and came to my table after. He told me that due to the supreme court decision I would have to use the mens from now on. I said that wasn’t what the law said.

They insisted it was and told me this was management’s decision. I got up and left. I felt demeaned and rather like my trust had been betrayed. This was a place I loved and frequented with staff I considered friends, but suddenly I was just a man in the wrong toilet in their eyes.

Another person described the issues they face at work:

My organisation put out a statement about inclusion following the SC ruling, then immediately made efforts to bring in segregation. This was done by the HR team outing me to all senior leaders at the trust, ensuring I was on my own, then ambushing me to tell me I was being segregated.

This same person found that they are left with no options:

I am living in a state of despair. I am unable to quit my job for fear of losing my house, unable to find another as I’ve been crippled by the stress of the human rights violations. I have no hope left.

A trans woman who faced confrontation whilst using the facilities in a shop explained how the ruling has changed her life:

I am a trans woman trying to comply with the ruling/EHRC and I used the men’s facilities. Whilst I was in there I was afraid, having been sexually and violently assaulted previously…I felt vulnerable, dirty, in danger, worthless, degraded, scared, anxious, afraid, hopeless.I was not able to use the facilities as a result of the harassment.

A disabled man who also faced issues using public toilets in England explained:

I am disabled and used my radar key to get in. Right after this there were two males outside yelling and trying to force the door open. I was already on the toilet. It was two days after the illegitimate ‘supreme court’ ruling by the way. The people kept shouting ‘you freak’ and ‘what the fuck are you’, ‘you don’t belong in there’ ‘are you a boy or a girl’ etc. Disabled toilets so single unisex cubicle!

I look like a cis male. It made me feel scared, disgusted, angry. And I was in the toilets you told me to be in, you actual morons. I look exactly like a cis man, so I’d get beat up if I went into a women’s toilet. Nothing usually happens in mens toilet. The problem is I’m disabled and really need a sink in the cubicle for getting clean, changing medical dressings etc.

A person who described themselves as an able-bodied Black trans woman had a confronting experience whilst at a gym:

I have been at this gym for 10+ years and always been respectful of others to the point I consciously did not use either change facilities until I had full sex reassignment surgery in 2019.

This experience left me feeling angry, sad and very emotional all at once and also humiliated on the first day of having to use the “all inclusive change room and toilet” but also guilty in case someone with impaired mobility needed the facility more than me.

A Jewish disabled trans man was stigmatised in the workplace:

My manager told me during a meeting, after discussing with her superior, that “the guidance is there” to say that I shouldn’t be allowed to use the men’s toilets, and told me that I should use the disabled toilets instead as I have epilepsy so I’m entitled to it anyway.

I felt hopeless, and betrayed by a workplace that I genuinely thought would have my best interests at heart. I felt disappointed because I truly like everyone I work with and I feel like I’m being punished for nothing.

A trans man also recounted facing issues at work:

I feel awful, humiliated, a problem. I felt like it’s a problem me even being there. It’s basically telling me to act like a girl or use the old lockers no one can use due to them getting binned out in the corridor. Really humiliating.

Chaotic and unclear

The experiences above are a small sample of the testimonies TransActual have gathered just months after the initial ruling came into place. They paint a picture of a chaotic situation where the law is unclear and patently unfair. TransActual show how:

• both trans and cis people are negatively impacted by incoherent guidance
• trans people report being outed through attempted application of the ruling
• trans people report being excluded from both work and social spaces that were previously safe for them
• bullies are empowered to continue their harassment of trans people
• inconsistent applications of the ruling often resulting in abusive enforcement.

Walker, from TransActual, added:

Some politicians bury their heads in the sand and say that they are acting in the interests of our ‘dignity and compassion’. But I challenge them to read these reports full of the harm they have inflicted and are hellbent on worsening, and then tell me again how they’re contributing to our dignity and safety.

The report makes for harrowing reading and provides evidence for the segregation of gender non-conforming people as second class citizens. And, many of the testimonies submitted show that disabled people and people of colour are further ostracised. Walker concluded:

Trans people shouldn’t have to bare their souls like this for politicians to acknowledge the hurt they are causing. But I’m very grateful to everyone who has done so to make these reports possible.

Featured image via Unsplash/Thiago Rocha