So now let’s read the Equality and Human Rights Commission guide.

Who this guide is for

This guide is for service providers (anyone who provides goods, facilities or services to the public) who are looking to establish and operate a separate or single-sex service.

There was a time when that mostly meant service providers who excluded women from men’s clubs and bars and gyms, which was not only sexist in itself but also an extreme barrier to women working in various professions and businesses where a lot of the networking and jockeying for position took place in…clubs and bars and gyms.

Now it doesn’t mean that any more, now it means service providers who exclude men from women’s toilets ffs. There’s precious little executive networking that happens in toilets; the only reason men want to invade women’s toilets is in aid of some form of spying or assault or both. It’s beyond maddening that we’re having to fight for the right to say no to men peering over the partitions at us.

Summary

The Equality Act allows for the provision of separate or single sex services in certain circumstances under ‘exceptions’ relating to sex.

To establish a separate or single-sex service, you must show that you meet at least one of a number of statutory conditions (set out in this section of the guide) and that limiting the service on the basis of sex is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. For example, a legitimate aim could be for reasons of privacy, decency, to prevent trauma or to ensure health and safety. You must then be able to show that your action is a proportionate way of achieving that aim.

There are circumstances where a lawfully-established separate or single-sex service provider can prevent, limit or modify trans people’s access to the service. This is allowed under the Act. However, limiting or modifying access to, or excluding a trans person from, the separate or single-sex service of the gender in which they present might be unlawful if you cannot show such action is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. This applies whether the person has a Gender Recognition Certificate or not.

It just makes me tired. We shouldn’t have to defend it. We shouldn’t be required to “show such action is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.” Excluding men should just go on being the default. I don’t care how they “identify.” I just don’t. I can’t. They don’t care about how we prefer to pee away from men, so why should I care how they identify? They care only about themselves, so why should I care about them?

When considering how your service is provided to trans people, you must balance the impact on all service users and show that there is a sufficiently good reason for excluding trans people or limiting or modifying their access to the service.

In other words, women have to “balance” our rights with the purported rights of men who say they are women. I say it’s spinach and I say the hell with it.

Updating to add a very on the mark observation from Sastra.