Discrimination Law Review

The UK Government in Westminster is planning to change Britain’s equality and anti-discrimination laws.  This review of the law is called the Discrimination Law Review.  In it, the UK Government’s plan is to pass a Single Equality Bill within the next couple of years. The Single Equality Bill would replace the existing anti-discrimination laws.

The Discrimination Law Review Consultation (Summer 2007)

In June 2007 the UK Government published a consultation green paper called the Discrimination Law Review – a Framework for Fairness.  The deadline for responding to the consultation was September 4th 2007. Some of the proposed changes in the consultation paper affected transgender people.  Over the summer of 2007, the Scottish Transgender Alliance Development Worker carried out consultations with Scottish transgender groups and individuals (in person, by post and online) and wrote a 35 page STA response to the Discrimination Law Review green paper based upon the views provided to the STA by transgender people in Scotland.  Below is a short summary of the biggest issues for transgender people within the Discrimination Law Review green paper consultation.  We have also briefly given below the Scottish Transgender Alliance’s views on these major issues.  If you want to read the full detail of the 35 page Scottish Transgender Alliance response to the Discrimination Law Review green paper, you can find it in the Downloads box on the left of this webpage.

Protection against discrimination for transgender people

UK law already bans discrimination and harassment against transsexual people at work, by their employer or by work colleagues.  UK law also bans discrimination against transsexual students in vocational training, which includes all further and higher education.  Most transsexual people are protected, but other transgender people are not because the protection is on the grounds of intending to undergo, currently undergoing or having previously undergone gender reassignment. The UK Government proposed in the Discrimination Law Review to extend the law so that it also bans discrimination and harassment by ‘providers of goods, facilities and services’.  This would make it unlawful for businesses, including for example shops, pubs and hotels, to discriminate against transsexual customers.  It would also make discrimination by public services unlawful, including for example the health service.

Most of this goods, facilities and services discrimination must be banned anyway prior to any Single Equality Bill because the UK is obliged to implement the ‘EU Gender Directive’.  However, some public services will not be dealt with until the Single Equality Bill in two or three years time, because they are not covered by the EU law.  The Scottish Transgender Alliance agrees with the UK Government proposal to ban discrimination against transsexual people by providers of goods, facilities and services, including public services but is disappointed that the UK Government did not propose to go further in terms of the level of goods, facilities and services protection.  In the opinion of the Scottish Transgender Alliance, the UK Government has left too many gaps in the goods, facilities and services protections for trans people.

Which trans people are protected from discrimination?

At the moment, the law only protects transgender people who have had, or are planning to have, gender reassignment treatment. This is defined as a process under supervision, for the purpose of reassigning sex, by changing physical or other characteristics of sex. In other words, a person is only protected if they have had some kind of medical support related to being transgender, and that support is connected with changing (or planning to change) their physical body and/or the gender in which they live.

Transgender people who have not had medical supervision are not protected by the law.  And transgender people who do not (and do not intend to) transition are not protected. This means that most cross-dressing people, many intersex people, polygender, bigendered and androgyne people, for example, are not protected from discrimination.  Employers, businesses and public services can treat those people worse, simply because they are transgender, without breaking the law.  In the consultation, the UK Government were proposing to leave this unchanged.  The Scottish Transgender Alliance strongly disagrees with this.

The Scottish Transgender Alliance believes that the law should be widened to protect all transgender people from discrimination and harassment. People who discriminate against transgender people do not usually recognise a difference between transsexual and other transgender people.  They discriminate against people who they think do not look or act ‘right’ for their gender.  Transphobic discrimination is as harmful to the victim, to business and public services, and to society, whoever the victim is.

What about trans pupils at school?

The UK Government are not proposing to ban discrimination against trans pupils at school.  The UK Government claim that there are hardly any trans pupils in school.  We disagree with this.

The Scottish Transgender Alliance believes that the law should ban discrimination by schools against transgender pupils, in the same way as the law already bans discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils.  Many trans people are aware of their gender identity issues at a young age, and some transsexual people get medical advice and support to start transitioning before the age of 18.

Are non-trans people protected?

At the moment, the law does not protect non-transgender people who are discriminated against because someone wrongly thinks that they are transgender.  This is different from the equality laws about sexual orientation.  If someone discriminates against you because they think you are gay, that is just as unlawful whether you are actually gay or not.

In the consultation, the UK Government stated that they do not plan to extend protection to people who are wrongly thought to be transgender.  The Scottish Transgender Alliance disagrees with this.

Transphobic discrimination is wrong whether the victim is transgender or not. The law should make it unlawful to discriminate against or harass people because they are, or are believed to be, transgender.

When should discrimination be allowed?

The UK Government proposed in the Discrimination Law Review green paper that single-sex services should be allowed to discriminate against transsexual people.  The Scottish Transgender Alliance is very concerned about this, and we certainly think that such services should not be allowed to discriminate against transsexual people who have obtained legal recognition of their gender under the Gender Recognition Act.

The UK Government asked whether religious organisations should be allowed to discriminate against transgender people. Religious organisations are allowed to discriminate against lesbian, gay and bisexual people in certain circumstances. The Scottish Transgender Alliance wants any religious exception relating to transgender identity to be no wider than the current exception relating to sexual orientation.