Yesterday the City of Edinburgh Council voted to support a motion to condemn the EHRC’s draft Code of Practice, 34 votes to 19. You can read the full text of the motion from Councillor Staniforth here.

We were very pleased to see the motion pass with support from councillors across political parties, and see elected officials standing up for the people they represent in the face of a Code which is completely unworkable for trans people and so many others in Edinburgh.

Our manager Vic spoke at the Council meeting ahead of the vote, encouraging councillors to support the motion and highlighting the Council’s obligations to consider trans people’s human rights:

“We do not believe that it is possible to operate services in the way described in the Code, and to not breach trans people’s human rights. We believe operating services in the way it describes will result in trans people finding ourselves without access to a huge range of vital services. Forced to either use services that cannot meet our needs, segregated from other people, or with no services at all. We think that this will have a hugely negative impact on trans people’s equality, human rights, health and wellbeing, and all-round ability to participate in public life. We think that these two demands on the Council – to deliver your services in ways that are compatible with both your equality and your human rights obligations – are completely irreconcilable.”

We’re also very grateful to Resisting Transphobia in Edinburgh, Trans Pride Scotland, and EIS Scotland who also spoke in support of the motion, covering the very real impacts the Supreme Court judgment and the draft Code are already having on trans people in Edinburgh. You can read RTiE’s post about the motion and their speech here (content warning for mention of sexual assault.)

Finally, as Nadia Whittome’s motion in UK Parliament to disapprove the Code hits over 150 supporters this week, it’s very encouraging to see both local and national politicians still speaking out against the unacceptable treatment of our community, and taking steps to make sure our segregation is not normalised.