We’ve been a little quiet the last few weeks despite the fact that trans people have been endlessly discussed in the media and the parliament during that time.

The reason for that is that our Manager is going to be a witness in the employment tribunal between Sandie Peggie and NHS Fife (*see more on why at the bottom of the page).  The Judge in the tribunal has ordered all witnesses to not follow the media coverage of the case, and that has meant that a lot of the public discussions have been ones that we can’t engage with.

However, the conversation about trans people has obviously gotten much bigger than the case itself. In particular, we’re now seeing more Scottish politicians and journalists echoing calls of campaigners who argue that all single-sex spaces in Scotland should operate on the basis of biological sex at birth.

We have said it before, but it bears repeating – it is not a new idea to insist that trans people should be treated in line with our biological sex at birth by services, public bodies, and when we participate in public life. Historically, this is exactly how trans people were treated, and it meant that we could not go to work safely, use services that met our needs, or use public spaces freely. It meant that we experienced even higher levels of discrimination, harassment and abuse. Our lives were worse, and smaller, and we were hidden away from wider society.

It didn’t work. Trans people knew it didn’t work. Our families and friends knew it didn’t work. Service providers knew it didn’t work – ultimately lots of them did and do want to know how they can help and support us. And courts knew it didn’t work – not only that it didn’t work, but that it breached our human rights or meant that we faced discrimination. So many of the legal rights we have today come directly from court judgements – that say we have a right to live our lives and be recognised in line with our gender identity. That it is not ok to treat us as our biological sex at birth all the time, as to do so greatly reduces our quality of life, our right to privacy, and our right to simply be recognised for who we are.

That is why now, thankfully, there is more protection in the law for trans people to be able to live our lives true to ourselves and to not face discrimination (even if there are still gaps and things that need to improve).

The law in this space is clear. A policy to exclude trans people from a single-sex service will only be lawful if it is “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.

And don’t just take our word for it. In 2021, an organisation campaigning against trans people’s equality and human rights took a case trying to argue that single-sex services should always be able to exclude trans people. They lost the case. In fact, they were not given permission for the case to be heard in full, as the Judge said their case was ‘unarguable’ ‘clearly incompatible with the tenor of the Equality Act’ and based on ‘an obvious absurdity’. You can read the judgement here: https://oldsquare.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/R-on-application-of-AEA-v-EHRC-2021-EWHC-1623-Admin.pdf

It is easier to just nod along to ideas like “men are men and women are women and it’s all just common sense”. And that’s absolutely true, for 99% of people. But for trans people it’s just a little more complicated.

Recognising this complexity is not a fault. You can be clear that most people – almost everyone – aren’t trans, but that some people in fact are. And trans people need to be able to recover on hospital wards, use toilets, access cancer screenings, receive support after experiencing sexual violence, go swimming, try on new clothes… just like anyone else. For many years, not enough people recognised this, and trans people faced real and significant harm because of that. Let’s not go back to those times.