Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell has welcomed new guidance that says trans women can be legally excluded from some single-sex toilets.
Guidance surrounding all female spaces says it is lawful to ban someone who is born a man, if it would be less effective or impractical and the organisation can demonstrate its actions are proportionate.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said organisations must balance the impact on all service users and demonstrate “a sufficiently good reason” for banning transgender people.
The settings in which the new regulations could be implemented include changing rooms, domestic violence refuges and hospital wards.
Speaking about the newly-released guidelines by the equalities watchdog, Ms Powell told GB News: “I do welcome the new guidance, that’s their role and there have been some areas where people have wanted that extra guidance.
“What they are in fact, saying that in the case of law, that people should be included wherever possible, it’s about including those who are trans.
Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell
GB News
Female and male toilets
WikiCommons
“That’s the rule of thumb, it’s inclusion not exclusion.
“But there are circumstances where it’s appropriate for safety reasons or in case of sport for fair competition reasons where inclusion doesn’t trump issues around safety or fair competition.
“So they’ve given some examples of that but I think what we now need to see is some more practical guidance around what that actually means because what the EHRC are also saying is that you can’t ask for certification or you can’t ask for people to produce documentation in order to implement that guidance."
The trans debate was sparked after swimmer Lia Thomas becoming the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming title last month.
Cyclist Emily Bridges had been due to race against the likes of Dame Laura Kenny at the National Omnium Championships in Derby this weekend, her first race in the female category.
But on Wednesday last week, British Cycling announced that world governing body the UCI had ruled her ineligible.
It is understood that although British Cycling had accepted she had met the requirements.
Blair Hamilton, a transgender goalkeeper, who once played men’s football, has also now been selected for the England Universities’ women’s team.
