Transgender school students should not be permitted to use the toilets or changing facilities of the gender they identify as, guidance for schools says.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published an for workplaces, public services and schools following the Supreme Court judgement this month that ruled that “sex” means biological sex.
The watchdog said that transgender girls, who under this ruling are considered biological boys, should not be permitted to use the girls’ toilet or changing facilities, with the same applying to transgender boys.
Schools already must provide separate single-sex toilets for boys and girls over the age of 8 and single-sex changing facilities for boys and girls over the age of 11.
Guidance for transgender school students
The document published today is intended to highlight the main consequences of the court judgement, while the EHRC is working to update its statutory and non-statutory guidance.
However, the watchdog recommended that “suitable alternative provisions may be required” for transgender school students, and stressed that transgender people “should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use”.
Earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled that the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex.
Tes reported after the ruling that teachers were concerned about its implications, with unions urging the government to provide “clear guidance” to schools on how to interpret the law.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told the House of Commons last week that the government will be issuing guidance to schools about gender-questioning children “this year”.
Draft guidance published under the previous Conservative government also called for students to use the toilets, showers and changing facilities designated for the sex they were assigned at birth, but said that schools should provide alternative arrangements.
When asked if the ruling meant that transgender people would be banned from using the toilets of the gender they identify as, minister Pat McFadden said that ”there isn’t going to be toilet police”.
However, he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the “logical consequence of the judgement” and the new guidance is that people will have to use toilets, changing rooms and other facilities of their biological sex.
The EHRC is working on a more detailed code of practice following the Supreme Court ruling, which it said it aims to provide to the government for ministerial approval by June.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, to call on the Department for Education to engage with trade unions around how to “defend and describe equitable and inclusive educational practice for gender-questioning and non-binary students”.
He also urged the government to provide advice on how to “uphold the employment rights of trans and non-binary employees”, warning that the employment picture for trans staff “remains deeply discriminatory”.
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