Equality And Human Rights Commission sets biological-sex rules for toilets
The equality and human rights commission published updated guidance on Thursday saying single-sex spaces such as toilets and changing rooms must be used on the basis of biological sex. The code also said transgender people may not access single-sex spaces that match their lived gender.
For trans people and for services that have spent months preparing for a ruling, the guidance turns a long wait into an immediate compliance problem. Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds, Lush and campaigners are now describing the practical changes they expect inside services, shops and public-facing spaces.
Stephen Whittle at Chelsea Flower Show
Stephen Whittle was visiting the Chelsea flower show with his wife on Thursday afternoon when the updated code was published. He said, “Of course I used the male facilities, as I have done for the last 50 years. Can you imagine what the guy on security would have said if I’d gone to the ladies?”
Whittle, who spearheaded the campaign for gender recognition across the UK in the 1990s, said he was trying to calm people down after the guidance was published. His reaction came after what many in the trans and wider LGBTQ+ community had described as a sense of limbo since the supreme court ruling on biological sex in April 2025.
Katie Russell and SARSVL
Katie Russell, the chief executive and co-founder of Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds, said her service had taken bespoke legal advice and consulted with service users since April last year. By Friday morning, she said the service was still examining the 340-page code.
Russell said, “In practical terms, we understand we have lost the right to call ourselves women-only, and we’re gradually changing our language to make it clear we are still women-centred but for us that includes trans women. We want to operate within the law but continue to model our intersectional feminist values”
She said trans women and non-binary clients make up a tiny percentage of the 1,700 individuals SARSVL supported last year. The service mainly does one-to-one work in person, online or through its helpline, which leaves it deciding how to describe that support while staying inside the new code.
Lush and frontline workers
Lush said the guidance was “a significant setback for human rights in the UK.” Andrew Butler said it puts frontline service providers and retail workers in the position of policing people’s gender based on perception.
“It puts frontline service providers, retail workers and many others in the position of policing people’s gender based on perception, with their organisations’ l” Butler said. The practical pressure now falls on employers, service managers and staff who will have to decide how to apply the code in day-to-day settings for toilets, changing rooms and other single-sex spaces.
