makomk

The Equality Act 2010, which has become law here in the UK and comes into effect in the next few months, is supposed to prohibit discrimination based on sex and “gender reassignment”. Yet there’s one very important area where it actually legalizes discrimination against trans people that was previously illegal. It’s now legal to refuse to employ trans women in roles such as rape counseling if you so much as think they might make cis women uncomfortable – and many rape counseling organisations here are run by out-and-out transphobes. What’s more, this isn’t symmetric: it’s illegal under the Equality Act to to employ only trans people in such a job. Also, any area, group or organisation that is sex-segregated can now legally discriminate against trans people in providing services.

This means the so-called Equality Act actively and explicitly discriminates against trans people, especially trans women: cis women-only rape counseling with all-cis female counselors is legal, while trans women-only rape counseling with all-trans female counselors is illegal. (Excluding trans women from rape counseling and domestic violence services is the main purpose of this clause, though it potentially affects many other things too.)

An Equality Act that actually enshrines transphobic discrimination in law is horrible, but not at all surprising. The Equality Act was constructed by a core faction in the Labour Party with deep ties to transphobic feminists, including to Julie Bindel, and said feminists have long called for exactly this kind of discrimination in ...