Member-only story
Indignity, Disrespect, and the EHRC
I wrote this article in the two hours after the EHRC story broke earlier this week. I pitched it to the Metro and the I, but neither bit. I kept it short to suit their limited word counts. I understand that it may be behind the conversation now, later in the news cycle, at points.
With every day that passes, Britain’s trans people wake up to more restrictions on their lives. The latest, pushed by an openly transphobic EHRC and lauded by hardline anti-trans organizations and figures, removes trans women’s ability to work in ‘female-only jobs’. On the face of it — and to the layperson — this will be both popular and logical. Yet even minimal scrutiny reveals that it shouldn’t be.
Firstly, the new guidance states that only trans people with gender recognition certificates will be able to work in these roles, yet these certificates are extremely difficult to get. Between 2005 and 2021 — more than fifteen years — only 6,586 were granted. Getting a gender recognition certificate relies on a transgender person receiving NHS treatment, yet it is notoriously difficult for trans people to access that care. Trans people routinely wait upwards of five years for just an initial appointment, with actual treatment taking far longer. The GRC process is arduous and demeaning. The Gender Recognition Certificate system that this guidance is predicated on is fundamentally…
