Proposed changes to the Code of Practice of the UK body responsible for the promotion and enforcement of equality and non-discrimination laws, have been labelled not just “discriminatory and unworkable” but likely to result in “segregation, harassment and exclusion”.

Earlier this year, the UK Supreme Court issued its verdict in the case of For Women Scotland vs Scottish Ministers, deciding that the protected characteristic of sex in the 2010 Equality Act referred to biology only and so excluded trans people. In the wake of the ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published interim guidance which recommended service providers ban trans men and women from single-sex services and facilities, adding that in “some circumstances”, transgender people could also be barred from spaces, based on “biological sex”.

It was later clarified that the “circumstances” related to where “reasonable objection” could be taken to a trans person’s presence, such as in female spaces, when “the gender reassignment process has given [a trans man] a masculine appearance or attributes”.

The EHRC staged a consultation period on the updating of its Code of Practice, which was extended from two weeks to six after pressure from the Women and Equalities Committee and trans groups, who criticised the limitations of the original time period.

In September, the EHRC announced it had sent a finished version of the Code to equalities minister – and favourite to become Labour’s deputy leader – Bridget Phillipson. A leak published The Times suggested the guidance would not be too dissimilar to what was outlined in the interim guidance.

The final version has not been made public yet but numerous groups have called the proposals inherently transphobic and claimed they could breach international human rights laws.

Writing in Scene Mag, transgender journalist and TransActual director jane fae said the EHRC had “gleefully weaponised” the Supreme Court ruling.

“As countless lawyers, including former Supreme Court judges lords Hale and Sumption, have pointed out: it merely defined terms in the Equality Act. What society, in the shape of the EHRC, did with that definition was then… up to society.

“And, sadly, the EHRC is a body widely believed to have been stuffed with anti-trans ideologues by the last government, and, pointedly, not reformed by the current one.”

The updated Code of practice would “exclude and segregate trans people from public life for a generation [and] impose upon UK society, a radical new approach, which would make sex assigned at birth a fundamental organising principle in all our lives”, fae predicted.

“No more, the relatively laid-back approach to matters of social organisation that have emerged since the war. No more women nipping into the men’s loos in the intervals at the theatre, or mums and dads accompanying opposite sex children into changing rooms at the weekend,” she warned.

“Nah, they are aiming to impose sexual segregation of the sort rarely seen outside of extremely religious, fundamentalist regimes. Their primary target, of course, is trans people. In the end, though, we all lose: especially anyone who fail to fit inside accepted gender norms.

“The proposed Code of Practice is discriminatory and unworkable. It would lead to segregation, harassment and exclusion of trans and gender-non-conforming people. It would be a bathroom ban.”

In August, TransActual published a report entitled “Trans segregation in practice: experiences of trans segregation following the Supreme Court ruling“, which included testimony from not just transgender men and women affected by the Supreme Court ruling but also from intersex and cis people who don’t fit into binary gender norms.

It detailed accounts of abuse and violence, as well as being refused access to certain spaces for not looking “right”, and being outed at work.

“I was invited by other women patients to take part in a spa evening but I was unable to join them because the hospital directors would not allow me to be in a female space,” one individual said of their experience. “The patients were upset and outraged on my behalf, they felt it was unjust. I felt a hole had opened up, that I was a freak and not right for society.”

In another case, a butch cis lesbian with short hair was not allowed to use the female toilets.

“I felt invalid and embarrassed,” she said. ” I am painfully aware my experience was a glimpse of what the trans community are suffering every day.

“Going forward, I will be more hesitant and anxious about using public toilets but I will continue to do so. It’s sad that at 47 I’m back to my life and appearance being a political statement in the UK.”

In a statement provided to PinkNews, a spokesperson for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “At the EHRC we are wholeheartedly committed to protecting and upholding every person’s equality and human rights.

“As Britain’s impartial and expert equality regulator, we take great pride in our independence from government and from civil society organisations.

“Our response to the Supreme Court’s judgment on the definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 has been, and will continue to be, firmly grounded in the law. We are obliged to interpret and explain it clearly for those who must comply with the law.

“It’s our job to provide accurate, expert advice on the Equality Act and how to put the law into practice. We updated our services code of practice in light of the Supreme Court’s judgment and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities in September.

“The UK government is responsible for laying the guidance before Parliament.”

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