We are very saddened by the recent EHRC guidance and understand it will be making a lot of our student community upset and scared. We are currently working through the guidance to find out the best ways to support all our students.
We want to ensure everyone that within the Students Union building you can use the toilet that best suits you. It will be considered harassment* if gender is questioned and will be actioned as such.
*Under the Equality Act 2010, harassment is defined as unwanted conduct that violates a person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment. It covers behaviour related to a protected characteristic, unwanted sexual conduct, and retaliatory treatment.
Students in the Undeb Aberystwyth Senedd voted to resist and campaign against the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on Gender. We are encouraging all students to write to our local MP to fight against the ruling to make sure Aberystwyth and the wider UK is a safe space for everyone.
Please find a draft email below (edited from the Trans Legal Clinic):
Dear Ben Lake
I am writing to you as your constituent [your full name, address - you need this so the parliamentarians are allowed to respond to you] to ask that you stand with the Transgender, Intersex, Gender Non-Conforming, and LGBTQ+ community in the country, and use your place in parliament to protect the rights of [me and my community/the community.]
The EHRC has submitted the final version of its new Code of Conduct to the government, soon it will be signed off on by Secretary of State Bridget Philipson. From all we have heard about this Code and the interpretation the EHRC has taken of the Supreme Court decision in For Women Scotland, it will mark a massive step back for the rights of Transgender, Intersex and Gender Non-Conforming people in the UK. The Code of Practice will effectively bring about a Transgender bathroom ban, creating a world where Transgender people could be excluded or segregated in almost all aspects of public life.
A lot of focus has been on the access to bathrooms aspect of this Code, but it will also limit Transgender, Intersex and Gender Non-Conforming people's access to healthcare services, housing, any women's group (even if that group has always been Trans and GNC inclusive) social care services, domestic violence refuges, gyms, pools, spas. It will also redefine lesbian and gay relationships, no longer protecting a Trans woman and a cis woman who are in a relationship with each other under the Equality Act 2010 definition of sexual orientation. There is almost no area of life that this Code will not touch.
As a [insert identity if you wish] I am scared for my community/myself. [Maybe if you wish insert a little about how this makes you feel]
The EHRCs consultation on the initial draft guidance received over 50,000 responses, many from Trans and GNC people, the organisations that work with them and the people who love them. This Code does not come into effect in isolation; the government is systematically removing the rights of Transgender, Intersex and GNC people every day, restricting their access to healthcare, allowing abuse online and in person. We are living in dangerous and uncertain times. Globally, the rights of all LGBTQ+ people are under threat. This is a time for a government to show strong leadership and speak up for the most vulnerable.
I am writing to ask that you use your position and power to do what you are elected to do: represent my voice to the government, pressure them to scrutinise this Code properly, and legislate to fix the disastrous position our equality law is in, following this Supreme Court decision and the implementation of this Code. Most importantly, to stand for what is right, protecting vulnerable communities from harm and not to allow our rights to be taken away behind locked doors.
Regards,
[Your Name]