Good morning.
The Labour partyis to cancelits national women’s conference while it waits for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to issue its final guidance on how to apply the supreme court ruling that the term “woman” in the Equality Act only applies to a “biological woman”.
This, however, could take some time. Justyesterday, the EHRC announced it was extending its public consultation period to six weeks. The move follows backlash to its interim advice, rushed out just a week after April’s supreme court ruling which effectively banned trans people from using toilets and other services of the gender they identify with.
While the extension of the consultation has been widely welcomed – particularly by trans rights campaigners – it will undoubtedly prolong the uncertainty that has followed in the wake of the supreme court ruling.
The cancellation of the conference has prompted fury from both “sides” of the issue, fuelling discontent at the government’s handling of the judgment and the perceived failure of political leadership to help businesses and individuals steer through the confusion of what the ruling will actually mean in the long term.
For today’s newsletter I spoke to Scotland correspondentLibby Brooks, who has been covering this story extensively for the Guardian, about the fallout from the supreme court judgment and how this has been affecting people on the ground.
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In April the supreme court ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 referred only to “a biological woman” and to “biological sex”. Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said he welcomed the ruling and that it finally brought“clarity”to the issue of what constitutes a woman.
Yet in the weeks since, this “clarity” has been hard to find. Instead, Libby says that she has heard from employers that they are unsure about how they should implementing the judgment, and people in the trans community who are fearful of what their future holds.
Why hasLabourcancelled its women’s conference?
Yesterday Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) postponed its 2025 women’s conference, which brings together hundreds of women from Labour’s activist base and was supposed to take place just before the party’s annual conference in September.
The decision was reportedly taken after the NEC received advice that if the conference went ahead in line with Labour’s “positive action” policies, which operate on self-identification principles (thus allowing those identifying as a woman to be included), it could expose the party to legal action. It also warned that if it was not postponed, political embarrassment in the form of protests and direct action could also follow.
At the same time, the NEC was told that including trans women on all-women political shortlists would be “unlawful”.
Its justification was that it needed to wait for full guidance from the EHRC on how to apply the supreme court ruling.
The postponement of the conference drew ire from both gender critical and trans rights activists. Labour Women’s Declaration said it showed the Labour government lacked the courage to immediately scrap its self-identification policies and run the conference as planned “in accordance with law which was introduced under a Labour government”.
LGBT+ Labour’s trans officer, Georgia Meadows, and two Labour trans rights campaign groups also condemned the cancellation of the conference, saying it could further harm trans people’s ability to engage with the democratic process at a time when the community felt increasingly under attack.
What guidance is the government waiting for?
Just over a week after the supreme court issued its judgment, the EHRC issued an interim update on what the supreme court judgment meant for businesses and individuals.
By stating that transgender people “should not be permitted” to use facilities of the gender they identify with, Libby says the interim updateamounted to a blanket ban, which left many in the trans community frightened.
The EHRC always said that it would open a two-week public consultation before it issued its final, updated code of practice. The backlash that it received after its interim update, from inside the commission, from MPs and from the trans community, has seen it extend this to six weeks.
Libby says the extension suggests a greater willingness from the EHRC to take on board those concerns, and could mean the eventual code of practice allows for more latitude beyond the blanket ban proposed.
“But extending the consultation also means that it’s unlikely the final guidance will be agreed by the Commons summer recess,” says Libby, “which drags out the uncertainty over the summer and leaves businesses and individuals relying on that much stricter initial interpretation in the interim.”
How has the government handled the aftermath of the supreme court decision?
Regardless of where you are on this issue – whether you welcome the supreme court judgment or are disturbed by it – “it’s safe to say nobody has been happy with the way that Labour have dealt with it since,” Libby says. “They have seem to be opting for the path of least resistance, avoiding any potentially vote-losing or unpopular decisions and leaving it up to the commission to steward this”.
Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson moved to reassure trans people after the supreme court ruling, saying in the Commons that she would not want any trans person “anywhere across the country to be fearful”.
Yet earlier this month, a group of 14 national LGBTQ+ charitieswrote to Starmerseeking an urgent meeting to discuss what they described as “a genuine crisis for the rights, dignity and inclusion of trans people in the UK”. So far they have received no response.
The frustration has also percolated into the ranks of the Labour party. Labour’s only transgender councillor, Dylan Tippetts,resigned from Plymouth council, accusing his party of “throwing trans people under the bus”. Several MPs including Charlotte Nichols, Kate Osborne, Olivia Blake and Nadia Whittome have also openly voiced their opposition to Labour’s handling of the fallout.
“The judgment has been hailed, not least by Labour itself, as bringing clarity to what has been a hugely vexed and toxic discourse but has ended up raising as many questions as it answered, with ordinary people trying to run cafes, gyms or decide where to try on a new shirt in a shop confused about what the expectations now are and how they are going to be policed,” says Libby.
“We know that trans advocacy groups have written to Keir Starmer asking to meet him to discuss what they think is a genuine crisis for inclusion, but I’d imagine too that the women who were celebrating on the steps of the supreme court would have preferred some more leadership from the Labour government.”
How is this already playing out across the country?
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While there are many people who are in support of the supreme court ruling, Libby says the judgment, the interim guidance and the lack of political leadership are “without question having a chilling effect on trans people going out and about on their daily business”.
On the ground, Libby says, she is listening to businesses and organisation who feel they are in a holding pattern, waiting for the final guidance. “I think you can draw a direct line from the caution at the top of government to the small businesses who want to be inclusive while respecting customers’ concerns and are worrying about how they can practically fit another toilet into small premises.”
She adds that how businesses should be treating trans employees is proving especially difficult. “Employers are often aware of an employee’s trans status, even if colleagues are not, which is putting them in the difficult position of telling an individual that they have to change the toilet they’ve been using for years, inadvertently outing themselves to other members of staff in the process.”
In a moving interview last month, Libby interviewed Janey, a 70-year-old trans woman who has been living “happily and independently” for nearly half a century, but who told Libby that: “The fear is back. The fear I had when I first started my transition in 1979, that people will hurt me.”
“It has injected massive anxiety into people’s lives,” says Libby. “And not just for trans people. I’ve heard from all sorts of people who look a bit different, whether that’s a butch lesbian or someone with an invisible disability, who worry they are now fair game to be challenged about the facilities they are using. And with the new code of practice unlikely to be finalised before the summer, this is going to persist.”
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