The Great Gender Neutral Toilet Scandal
The Tories are at it again.
Yesterday, Sunday August 13, the UK government’s Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, made a pronouncement, going so far as writing an entire column in the right-wing rag, The Telegraph.
What was so important on a lazy Sunday? Toilets. More specifically, a new requirement that new buildings must provide separate male and female toilets to ‘protect single sex spaces’. Yeah, it’s a massive transphobic dog whistle.
Badenoch was known as trouble before she was appointed to this august ministerial position. She’s been caught questioning same-sex marriage, calling us trans women ‘men’, and linking us to predatory behaviour. Then she called for clarification of the Equality Act — a 13-year-old piece of legislation which has enshrined rights on the basis of sex AND gender identity.
The legislation has no case law challenging it. The closest to a challenge was when Bev Jackson (more on her at a later date) tried to petition the court for a judicial review. Her request was dismissed out of hand, as having no legal merit.
I’ll say it again, this is the United Kingdom’s cabinet minister for Women and Equalities. She’s a wrong un.
That’s the woman, but right now we’re here to talk about toilets. A little under two years ago, I mentioned in passing a government consultation into toilet provisions for men and women. Many of us decried the move as transphobic. The government brushed aside our concerns, despite the language of the consultation:
“Over recent years there has also been a trend towards replacing female only facilities with gender neutral toilets.” (Toilet provision for men and women: call for evidence, 31-10-20)
This phrase appears after two short paragraphs. Why was it considered such a pressing issue? Transphobia. It’s really that simple. I’ve written on this subject before but the short version is that Britain is suffering an unprecedented level of institutional capture. Regular MPs, government ministers, heads of parties, even the Prime Minister and much of our Equality and Human Rights Commission routinely throw out plain transphobic statements. Statements that are amplified by ubiquitously transphobic media. Even long-standing stalwarts of balance, the Guardian and even the BBC, will favour transphobic voices over those of my vanishingly small community.
This consultation comes from that monolith of hatred. People who wish to see trans people ‘mandated out of existence’, as Janice Raymond wrote 48 years ago. Of course the recent meteoric rise in hate targeting trans people has its roots much closer chronologically. Again, something I’ve written about before.
So, we know why the consultation was started. And we know what the outcome is.
We have to assume Badenoch’s statement was due to overwhelming public pressure to ensure future toilet provisions are single sex only.
Right??!!
Well, no. Let’s take a look at the statistics from the consultation…
Well, would you look at that! 83% of respondents were supportive of non-gendered toilets. Seven times the number of people wanting separate sex toilets.
I think those stats speak for themselves. The Tory government appears not to agree. New buildings will be required to segregate facilities.
By any measure this is a retrograde step, and one unsupported by the British public.
Sadly, it’s par for the course on TERF Island.
