The letter has been signed by brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Lucy & Yak and Lush Cosmetics
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY GETTY
Over 650 UK businesses and non-profits have signed a letter to the ministers for Business and Equalities to express concern over the proposed guidance by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) regarding the treatment of trans people.
Brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Lucy & Yak, Lush Cosmetics and Mighty Hoopla have expressed their worries about the way new guidance surrounding the interpretation of the UK Supreme Court ruling earlier this year could lead to a “blanket, mandatory exclusion of trans people from gendered spaces and services”.
Earlier this month, the EHRC handed over its final guidance about how institutions should respond to the UK Supreme Court ruling about the definition of the term “woman” in April. This ruling stated that in the Equality Act 2010, the term“woman” was defined by “biological sex”.
Jude Guaitamacchi, Trans+ Solidarity Alliance founder, said: “Hundreds of businesses, large and small, have signed this letter to tell politicians to fix this mess before they are forced into conflict with their own values and have to deal with impossible operational challenges. The EHRC’s draft fails to respect trans people’s human rights, and would make the UK an international outlier.”
In the letter sent to the government by these businesses, many have raised concerns about how any final guidance similar to the EHRC’s draft “would tell organisations that we must adopt practices that are incompatible with modern business values, create unworkable operational challenges, and cause significant economic harm.”
The Old Nuns Head pub, a signatory business, spoke about how this guidance could affect the daily running of their business: “We are a proudly inclusive venue and believe it’s important to ensure safety for all customers, including trans people. We’ve never had any issues with our loos, which have been set up to ensure that we are able to cater to all our customer needs. Having to make changes would be a great inconvenience to us and a waste of resources.”
“We are also concerned that requiring our staff to police toilet usage will take them away from the essential day-to-day tasks associated with running the pub, which would mean we would need to hire additional staff, a cost which would be an unwelcome burden on our business.”
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