Yesterday (4 April 2022) the Equality and Human Rights Commission published its guidance on single-sex spaces which can be found here. This is non-statutory guidance that explains the law, it is not the law itself. The guidance provides a number of worrying examples of instances where trans people could be barred from single-sex spaces. The guidance states that trans people can be excluded from single-sex spaces if their presence infringes upon the ‘dignity’ or ‘safety’ of others. This is very concerning as it suggests that sharing a space with a trans person is inherently dangerous, and that trans people risk…

Content Warning: Conversion “Therapy”/abuse. Mermaids announces that we will be joining the coalition of LGBTQIA+, trans and HIV organisations who have decided not to sign up to the government’s ‘Safe to be Me’ conference planned for Summer 2022. This is following a culmination of government inaction which has seen them fail to reform the Gender Recognition Act, address the year-on-year rise in transphobic hate crime or develop a comprehensive healthcare strategy for trans and non-binary people. The government’s latest decision to actively exclude trans and non-binary people from the ban on conversion practices has left us with no choice but…