The case concerns the effect of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 on the definition of “woman” and “man” for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. 

The grassroots organisation For Women Scotland is challenging an earlier decision by the Scottish Court of Session which effectively removed the category of biological sex as a protected characteristic from the Equality Act 2010 and said that the “default” meaning includes acquired gender. 

The case focuses on the lawfulness of statutory guidance issued by the Scottish Government under the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018, which sets targets for increasing the proportion of women on public boards in Scotland. The guidance, which is required to be in line with the Equality Act 2010, states that “woman” includes a person whose “acquired gender is female” under the Gender Recognition Act. 

Sex Matters, represented by Ben Cooper KC and David Welsh, has been given permission to make written and oral submissions in the public interest on the broader implications of the matters raised in this case for the coherence, effect and operation of equality law across England, Scotland and Wales and the rights and protections of different groups (including women, men and transgender people).

Sex Matters is a human-rights charity. Its object is to promote human rights where they relate to biological sex. Its mission is to promote clarity on sex in law and policy in order to protect everyone’s human rights. As a charity, its objects have been recognised to be in the public interest.

CEO Maya Forstater said: “The implications of this case are much wider than the make-up of public boards in Scotland. It is increasingly clear that unless there is clear recognition in law that being male or female is a material reality, and that sex-based rights are protected, women’s rights will continue to be whittled away and obscured by a cloud of uncertainty. 

“We will be calling on the Supreme Court to focus on the protections for universal human rights that are at stake, and to recognise that while everyone has the right to express themselves, dress how they please and call themselves what they want, this does not override the right of women to privacy, dignity, fairness and autonomy. Protecting everyone’s rights requires laws and words that reflect reality.”

Chair of Sex Matters Naomi Cunningham said: “We are delighted to be intervening at the Supreme Court. Sex Matters is a new charity, only registered this year, but it has rapidly established itself as an effective and respected contributor to the debates about how to make the law work for everyone.”

The post Sex Matters to intervene in landmark For Women Scotland supreme court case on meaning of sex in the Equality Act appeared first on Sex Matters.

The poll found that 48% of those who voted Labour in the 2019 election support the Conservative party’s manifesto pledge to amend the Equality Act to protect single-sex services, while just 20% oppose it. More Labour voters reject than support Labour’s manifesto proposal to amend the law to make it easier for people to change the sex on their birth certificates, with 40% opposing and 35% in support.

Overall, 57% of the population support the proposal to clarify that “male” and “female” in the Equality Act mean biological sex, with just 10% opposing. Labour and the Liberal Democrats plan to make it easier to change sex on birth certificates, which 53% of the population oppose and just 20% support.

Maya Forstater, CEO of Sex Matters, said: “This election campaign has proved that women’s sex-based rights can no longer be dismissed as a fringe issue. These results show firm support for policies that protect those rights.

“If parties putting themselves forward for government want to represent the mainstream, they should take serious note of the overwhelming support for sex-based rights across the political spectrum.”

The results also revealed that Gen Z (age 18–24) are more supportive of sex-based policies than Millennials (age 25–44), suggesting that support for gender-identity ideology among young people has passed its peak.

Both women and men are more supportive of the proposal to clarify the Equality Act than to make it easier to change sex on birth certificates, but men are more supportive of protection for sex-based rights than women overall. 

These findings of lack of support for legal sex change concur with the results of a survey earlier this month which found that levels of support for allowing people to change the sex on their birth certificate had fallen from 58% of the population in 2016 to just 24% in 2023. 

Another recent poll asking about the Labour Party’s pledge to simplify the process of “gender transition” – by removing the need for someone to prove they have lived in a different gender for two years and requiring only a single specialist doctor – was supported by only 24%, with 41% opposed.

Meanwhile, a new poll by More in Common found that the debate about “transgender people” was the only election issue where more people said it was talked about too much than too little, with 38% saying the issue is being talked about too much. The More in Common poll did not include questions about women’s rights or single-sex spaces.

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, said: “Putting these findings together, the message from voters is clear. People are sick of constantly hearing about bizarre and harmful policies based on the regressive idea of ‘gender identity’, and want an end to tedious debates that centre the tiny minority of people who deny the reality of biological sex and ignore the great majority. 

“Whichever party forms the next government needs to understand that the public strongly supports protections for sex-based rights, and is increasingly concerned about the legal falsification of records about people’s sex.What some politicians refer to as a ‘toxic debate’ will only end when they clarify laws and policies to centre the biological reality of sex and to reject invented notions of ‘gender identity’.”

Notes for editors

About the survey

Link to results. The survey was run by PeoplePolling (PP)  on 26th June 2024 with a sample size of 2,146. For more information on methodology please see the introduction to the poll results or contact info@peoplepolling.org . PP is a member of the British Polling Council

Further resources

Sex Matters blog posts:

• Comparison of the three main party manifestos on sex and gender (link)
• Labour manifesto: waging culture war over women’s rights (link)
• Conservative manifesto is serious about sex and gender (link)
• Not a fair deal for women – the Lib Dem manifesto (link)
• Stand Up For Single-Sex Services: campaign asks (link)
• It’s time to make the Equality Act clear (link)
  

About Sex Matters

Sex Matters is a human-rights charity co-founded in 2021 by Maya Forstater, who is its CEO, to campaign for sex-based rights. It lobbies for clarity on sex in law and institutions; publishes research, guidance and analysis; supports and mobilises people to speak up; and holds organisations accountable.

About Maya Forstater

Maya Forstater is co-founder and CEO of Sex Matters. In 2019 she lost her job as a researcher with the European arm of American think-tank Center for Global Development, after tweeting and writing about sex and gender. She was the claimant in the landmark test case which established that the protected characteristic of belief in the Equality Act covers gender-critical beliefs. Her website is ​forstater.com and she tweets @MForstater.

About Helen Joyce

Helen Joyce is a journalist and author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, an Amazon top ten bestseller, and Times of London and Spectator book of the year (recently reissued as Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights). She was a staff journalist at The Economist between 2005 and 2022, holding several senior positions, including International editor, Finance editor and Britain editor. She is director of advocacy for Sex Matters. Her newsletter can be found at thehelenjoyce.com.

The post New poll finds Labour voters more aligned with Tory position on sex and gender appeared first on Sex Matters.

In the context of her work countering the pernicious influence of gender-identity ideology, Helen has done a great deal of research on how young people – especially girls – develop trans identities.

In her writing and speaking she has often covered the significant role of fan fiction in this process. She has written about this for The Economist and her own newsletter, and spoken about the topic in several podcast interviews.

The post Statement on Helen Joyce and fanfic appeared first on Sex Matters.

Fiona McAnena joins Sex Matters following five years working as part of Fair Play For Women, during which time she directed FPFW’s successful sport campaign and worked on judicial review cases on the census in England and Wales and Scotland. 

Fiona will work with Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce to lead Sex Matters’ strategic engagement with policy-makers, media, businesses and organisations, and other campaign groups. In particular, she will strengthen our advocacy for protecting the female sport category, working with scientists, policy-makers and UK and international sports federations.

Fiona previously worked in brand management and marketing strategy in multinational businesses. She read Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge where she also won a rowing blue. She still rows competitively and is a keen parkrunner.

Laura Pascal has worked for a decade in Whitehall and Westminster in policy and external affairs. She was a civil servant at the Department of Health during the coalition government, and at the Department for Education under the current government. Since 2022 she has worked in third-sector policy and public affairs, supporting charities working in poverty reduction, health and education. 

Laura will lead Sex Matters’ work supporting and influencing ministers, civil servants and parliamentarians to understand sex-based rights and safeguarding, and finding opportunities to leverage those relationships to ensure that gender-critical voices are heard. 

Laura has an MSc in Gender, [International] Development and Globalisation from the London School of Economics. An active feminist and political and community campaigner, she stood as a Labour candidate in a by-election for Hackney Council in January 2024.

Fiona McAnena said:

“Sex Matters is doing essential work to defend human rights, especially those of women and girls. Sex Matters and Fair Play For Women were already working closely, so we know each other well. Maya and Helen are a class act and I’m proud to be on their team.”

Laura Pascal said:

“It’s great to be joining such a strong team at Sex Matters, at a time when campaigning for clarity about sex in law is more important than ever. I’m really pleased to be on board.”

Naomi Cunningham, chair of Sex Matters, said:

“I’m delighted to welcome Fiona and Laura to the Sex Matters team. Fiona has done outstanding work to advance the case for sex-based rules in sport, as well as for clear language and data concerning sex. Laura brings deep experience of working in politics and policy-making. Both have shown commitment and bravery in standing up for sex-based rights.

Fiona and Laura bring a huge wealth of experience and relationships, and I have no doubt they will make Sex Matters even more effective. We look forward to continuing to work with other groups campaigning for fairness, safety, dignity and clarity in laws and policies where sex matters, including Fair Play For Women and the groups supporting parliamentarians on these issues.”

About Sex Matters

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation co-founded in 2021 by Maya Forstater, who is its director, to campaign for sex-based rights. It lobbies for clarity on sex in law and institutions; publishes research, guidance and analysis; supports and mobilises people to speak up; and holds organisations accountable.

The post Sex Matters welcomes two new team members  appeared first on Sex Matters.

No other country that has allowed the trans lobby to dictate lessons and school policies has moved so decisively to reverse course. 

Other countries can learn from the UK experience: it’s far better to keep gender ideologues away from education entirely, but if the moment for that has already passed, it is not impossible to push back. All it takes is political will – and courage.

That this guidance has taken so long to publish clearly illustrates the extraordinary grip of the trans lobby over the education sector. Its malign influence has created a school-to-clinic pipeline, with unscientific ideas about biological sex and the promotion of trans identities in teaching materials leading to gender distress in children, and knock-on impacts on the number put on a dangerous medical pathway in gender clinics.

The most important takeaway is that the normalisation of so-called social transition – lying about children’s sex – is indefensible within a school environment. Every child has a sex, which is fixed at conception and never changes. Schools that lose sight of this fact risk acting outside the law.

We are grateful that the government has listened to experts and prioritised the wellbeing and safeguarding of children in this guidance, rather than pandering to ideological, anti-scientific dogma.

After years in which the trans lobby has dictated practice in too many schools, parents will be able to use this guidance to demand a return to sanity in the classroom.

Important positive steps in the guidance include insisting that schools tell parents if their child identifies as transgender, unless there are genuine safeguarding concerns; recognising that teachers and classmates cannot be forced to lie about trans-identified children’s sex; and above all that hard-and-fast rules regarding single-sex spaces and sports are essential for protecting all children’s privacy, dignity and safety, and for competitive fairness. 

However, the guidance still leaves too much to the discretion of individual schools and provides no framework for the complex, ill-defined decisions it envisages school leaders making for each individual child who declares a trans identity.

We hope that the consultation process over the coming months will strengthen the final version and make it more straightforward and easier for school leaders to follow.

The post Statement on the UK government’s new guidance on sex and gender in schools appeared first on Sex Matters.

Date: 25th October 2023

Sex Matters is calling for a ban on treatments that modify the sexual characteristics of minors, many of whom are likely to grow up to be gay

Human-rights campaign group Sex Matters has launched a new campaign to ban modern forms of conversion therapy that seek to treat children, young people and vulnerable people with interventions that seek to change physiological or other attributes of sex.

Many, though not all, young people who seek treatment to modify their sexual characteristics are same-sex attracted and a growing body of evidence suggests that they may be drawn to this treatment because they feel that their sexual orientation is unacceptable.   

Sex Matters is campaigning for legislation that outlaws all medical or surgical treatment of minors to modify their sexual characteristics, as well as medical or surgical treatment performed on anyone who thinks it will change their sex. The group is also calling for it to be a specific offence not to provide adequate information and ensure informed consent, and for it to be an offence to take a child abroad to get around the prohibition of modern conversion therapy. The group says such legislation could use the model of laws against FGM and virginity-testing.

Recent campaigns to ban conversion therapy focus on examples of abuse that took place more than 50 years ago, and there is no evidence that these abusive practices historically labelled “gay conversion therapy” continue today.

Sex Matters therefore says that any law to ban conversion therapy should seek to solve problems that exist today, not symbolically fight the battles of yesterday.

Maya Forstater, executive director of Sex Matters, said:

“Making new laws to ban historical forms of conversion therapy makes about as much sense as it would to make new laws to ban the historial slave trade instead of modern forms of slavery.

“Modern conversion therapy is telling children that they can be the opposite sex, which if they are going to grow up to be gay makes them ‘straight’.

“In the strongest possible terms, we are calling for a ban on harmful and misleading practices that are targeting minors and vulnerable people. Puberty is a human right.”

Increasing numbers of same-sex attracted children are being prescribed drugs that halt the natural progression of puberty, and cross-sex hormones that cause secondary sexual characteristics of the opposite sex to develop. Some go on to have irreversible surgery to remove their breasts, genitals or internal sexual organs.

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, said:

“Thousands of gay children in the UK are being told that they have been ‘born in the wrong body’, with many pushed into interventions that impede their sexual and reproductive functions throughout adulthood. It is nothing short of a scandal and is modern conversion therapy by definition.

“What happened to gay people in the past was unforgivable and harmful beyond belief. Given that those practices are already illegal, any new legislative measures must focus on current modern conversion-therapy practices.”

There is increasing evidence of patients who made decisions when they were too young or vulnerable, had confounding mental-health issues that were not addressed or were acting due to internalised homophobia or misogyny. Others made decisions based on unrealistic expectations, such as that hormones or surgery could actually change their sex, and many had not been given full information about the effects of the treatment (for example on fertility and adult sexual function) or were too young to understand them. Some made decisions based on misrepresentation of the law suggesting that other people can be forced to accept them as the opposite sex.

Sex Matters will be sharing its proposal with legislators over the coming weeks.

Notes for editors

Links and resources:

• Banning modern conversion therapy policy proposal (includes case studies), October 2023: https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Banning-modern-conversion-therapy.pdf

• It’s time to ban modern conversion therapy blog post, 25th October 2023: https://sex-matters.org/modern-conversion

• Conversion therapy resources: https://sex-matters.org/conversion-therapy-resources/

About Sex Matters

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation co-founded in 2021 by Maya Forstater, who is its director, to campaign for sex-based rights. It lobbies for clarity on sex in law and institutions; publishes research, guidance and analysis; supports and mobilises people to speak up; and holds organisations accountable.

About Maya Forstater

Maya Forstater is co-founder and executive director of Sex Matters. In 2019 she lost her job as a researcher with the European arm of American think-tank Center for Global Development, after tweeting and writing about sex and gender. She was the claimant in the landmark test case which established that the protected characteristic of belief in the Equality Act covers gender-critical beliefs. Her website is ​forstater.com and she tweets @MForstater.

About Helen Joyce

Helen Joyce is a journalist and author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, an Amazon top ten bestseller, and Times of London and Spectator book of the year (recently reissued as Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights). She was a staff journalist at The Economist between 2005 and 2022, holding several senior positions, including International editor, Finance editor and Britain editor. She is director of advocacy for Sex Matters. Her newsletter can be found at thehelenjoyce.com.

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation campaigning for clarity about sex in law, policy and language | sex-matters.org

The post New campaign: ‘Modern’ conversion therapy is telling children they can be the opposite sex appeared first on Sex Matters.

Date: 25th October 2023

Author and Sex Matters director of advocacy Helen Joyce has been shortlisted for the prestigious John Maddox Prize for courageously advancing public discourse with sound science.

Run by Sense about Science, an independent charity that promotes public interest in sound science and evidence, in partnership with Nature magazine, the international prize recognises individuals who stand up for science and evidence, advancing public discussion around difficult topics despite challenges and hostility.

Helen, a journalist who previously held senior roles at The Economist, was shortlisted for “her courage in highlighting the need for further research and evidence to be brought into discourse and policy discussion related to gender identity, and raising the importance of acknowledging biological sex differences”. She was among six shortlisted for the prize, which was won by Nancy Olivieri, a haematologist at Toronto General Hospital.

Judges for the prize said:

“Helen Joyce has been shortlisted for her courage in raising the importance of considering biological sex differences in health and social research, and the need for medical interventions to be evidence-based and transparently researched.

“Against a background of polarised and at times hostile reaction she has advocated for all researchers to be able to share findings openly and safely, whilst raising awareness of the harms resulting from a lack of research and absence of evidence underpinning medical interventions.”

Helen’s book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality was an Amazon top ten bestseller and a Times and Spectator book of the year. Earlier this year, journalists uncovered that Helen’s book was among several by gender-critical authors that had been removed from the shelves by staff at Calderdale Council libraries in Yorkshire.

The announcement comes after a string of interviews given by Helen in recent months on podcasts hosted by high-profile figures such as Richard Dawkins, Peter Boghossian and Jordan Peterson, and speeches at groundbreaking international conferences, including the keynote address in Killarney, Ireland for the inaugural conference in April of Genspect, an international interdisciplinary coalition seeking an evidence-based approach to gender-identity issues, and at the ICONS International Women’s Sport Summit in Denver in July.

Maya Forstater, executive director at Sex Matters, said:

“Sex Matters would like to congratulate Helen on this significant and well-deserved achievement.

“Helen is a brilliant communicator whose intellect, courage and compassion are unparalleled, and we are so proud to have her on the team.

“Many in the UK may not be aware of the extent to which Helen is making a mark internationally, but we hope that this will be the first of many accolades for her important work on sex and gender.”

Notes for editors

Link to Maddox Prize 2023:

• https://senseaboutscience.org/activities/maddox-prize-2023/

About Sex Matters

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation co-founded in 2021 by Maya Forstater, who is its director, to campaign for sex-based rights. It lobbies for clarity on sex in law and institutions; publishes research, guidance and analysis; supports and mobilises people to speak up; and holds organisations accountable.

About Helen Joyce

Helen Joyce is a journalist and author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, an Amazon top-ten bestseller, and a Times and Spectator book of the year (recently reissued as Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights). She was a staff journalist at The Economist between 2005 and 2022, holding several senior positions, including International editor, Finance editor and Britain editor. She is director of advocacy for Sex Matters. Her newsletter can be found at thehelenjoyce.com.

About Maya Forstater

Maya Forstater is co-founder and executive director of Sex Matters. In 2019 she lost her job as a researcher with the European arm of American think-tank Center for Global Development, after tweeting and writing about sex and gender. She was the claimant in the landmark test case which established that the protected characteristic of belief in the Equality Act covers gender-critical beliefs. Her website is ​forstater.com and she tweets @MForstater.

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation campaigning for clarity about sex in law, policy and language | sex-matters.org

The post Helen Joyce shortlisted for prestigious international science prize appeared first on Sex Matters.

Date: 24th October 2023

New guidance urges organisations to focus on sex rather than “gender identity”

Dr Michael Biggs: “It’s hard to overstate how dire things will be for evidenced-based analysis in future years if organisations continue to routinely and deliberately compromise data on sex.”

Human-rights campaign group Sex Matters has published its much-anticipated guidance on collecting data on sex for official statistics and employment, public-sector, school and university records. The guidance aims to provide clear, workable advice on the collection of data about sex and transgender identification in line with current legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

The guidance comes after years of contention, confusion and fear within public, private and voluntary-sector organisations on how to record information on sex. In 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) submitted advice to the Scottish government which misrepresented the law regarding data collection, telling organisations that they should record data only on self-identified gender, and not on sex.

Many organisations currently ask for “gender” or “gender identity” instead of sex. A shocking example is the NHS Mental Health dataset, which records people as “Male (including trans man)”, “Female (including trans woman)”, “Non-binary” or “Other”. (Note that “trans men” are women who identify as men, and are therefore female, while “trans women” are men who identify as women, and are therefore male.)

Other organisations offer a wide selection of “gender identity” options, including the Information Commissioner’s Office, which asked job applicants to select from a dropdown menu that included “Male”, “Female, “Transgender”, “Agender”, “Aporagender”, “Bigender”, “Demiboy” and several other novel gender identities. Oxfam asks staff if they are “man-identified”, “woman-identified” or “non-binary/gender queer”.

Earlier this year, an inquiry was launched into how sex and gender was handled in the 2021 Census in England and Wales, after an analysis showed that those who speak English poorly were five times more likely to be recorded as transgender.

Maya Forstater, executive director of Sex Matters, said:

“From official statistics to HR records, the collection of data on sex and gender has bordered on dystopian for several years now thanks to lobbying from transactivist groups.

“Recording sex accurately is crucial, particularly when it comes to issues such as safeguarding and service provision.

“We’ve had endless approaches from organisations who are trying to do the right thing and we hope this guidance will help lead a return to common sense when it comes to data collection.”

Sex Matters’ guidance starts from the premise that information on people’s sex is needed for many purposes, including safeguarding, healthcare and medical records, eligibility for sports competitions, service provision, social statistics and the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crime.

Sex Matters advises that data on whether people identify as transgender is sensitive and should only be collected when there is good reason and using a question that is clear to everyone. Among the potential reasons for asking people about transgender identity are operational (i.e. to identify transgender people as a population with specific needs), for social statistics (i.e. to know how many people identify as trans in a particular population) and for equality monitoring.

More than 500 organisations and individuals have registered for a webinar this evening on the guidance, which will be led by Maya Forstater and Sex Matters director of advocacy Helen Joyce, with Michael Biggs, associate professor of sociology at the University of Oxford, and Lucinda Platt, professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the London School of Economics.

Dr Biggs, whose analysis revealed the widespread confusion among respondents to the 2021 census question on gender identity, said:

“Wanting to appear inclusive or wanting respondents to feel seen are not good reasons to confuse sex with gender identity.

“It’s hard to overstate how dire things will be for evidenced-based analysis in future years if organisations continue to routinely and deliberately compromise data on sex.

“Imagine being a decision-maker in 2030 faced with designing and allocating resources in a given sector without credible data on sex, as that is where things are heading.

“This guidance is an important step towards tackling an ideologically driven attack on truth and evidence-gathering.”

Notes for editors

Links and resources:

• Data matters guidance, October 2023: https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Data-matters.pdf

• Sex matters in data collection webinar, Tuesday 24th October 7.30pm: https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/data-collection-webinar/

• Data matters blog post, 19th October 2023: https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/data-matters-actions/?mc_cid=fadd9f7de3&mc_eid=cd4aa5ead0

• Woman’s Place UK (2020). ‘EHRC misrepresents the law on collecting sex data’: https://womansplaceuk.org/2020/12/11/ehrc-misrepresents-the-law-on-collecting-sex-data

• Census ‘hugely overstated’ trans population, Edward Malnick, The Sunday Telegraph, 23rd September 2023: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/23/census-hugely-overstated-trans-population/

About Sex Matters

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation co-founded in 2021 by Maya Forstater, who is its director, to campaign for sex-based rights. It lobbies for clarity on sex in law and institutions; publishes research, guidance and analysis; supports and mobilises people to speak up; and holds organisations accountable.

About Maya Forstater

Maya Forstater is co-founder and executive director of Sex Matters. In 2019 she lost her job as a researcher with the European arm of American think-tank Center for Global Development, after tweeting and writing about sex and gender. She was the claimant in the landmark test case which established that the protected characteristic of belief in the Equality Act covers gender-critical beliefs. Her website is ​forstater.com and she tweets @MForstater.

About Helen Joyce

Helen Joyce is a journalist and author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, an Amazon top ten bestseller, and Times of London and Spectator book of the year (recently reissued as Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights). She was a staff journalist at The Economist between 2005 and 2022, holding several senior positions, including International editor, Finance editor and Britain editor. She is director of advocacy for Sex Matters. Her newsletter can be found at thehelenjoyce.com.

About Michael Biggs

Michael; Biggs is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College. His primary research focuses on social movements and political sociology. In the area of sex and gender, he has published on various subjects. One is on the evidence for puberty suppression in children experiencing gender dysphoria. He has acted as an expert witness in legal cases in England, Australia, and the United States. Another subject is the influence of queer theory on prison policy. Most recently he discovered serious errors in the gender-identity question used by the 2021 Census of England and Wales. He is a member of Sex Matters’ board of directors.

About Lucinda Platt

Lucinda Platt is Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. A quantitative sociologist, she focuses on social mobility and economic and social inequalities between different groups, with a particular emphasis on ethnicity and migration. She is a panel member of the IFS Deaton Review of Inequality, and has long-standing interests in data collection. She is co-investigator on Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, and was formerly director of the Millennium Cohort Study. In 2020–21 she was a member of the UK Statistics Agency’s Inclusive Data Taskforce.

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation campaigning for clarity about sex in law, policy and language | sex-matters.org

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Date: 5th October 2023

Sex Matters issues new briefing for Scottish head teachers following recent update to EHRC schools guidance

Campaign group Sex Matters has published a new briefing for Scottish nursery, primary and secondary head teachers on sex and gender based on updated guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on the Equality Act 2010. 

The EHRC’s technical guidance on schools was published in 2014 but has been found to be inaccurate in its presentation of what the Equality Act says in relation to pupils who identify as transgender.  

The updated guidance makes clear that schools in Scotland are required to provide separate toilets for boys and girls. This relates to children’s sex, which is not changed by having the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. 

Maya Forstater,  Executive Director of Sex Matters, said:

“Scottish schools have been getting mixed messages about how to manage single-sex facilities from the government and from transactivist lobby groups for a number of years. The Scottish Government has already withdrawn and revised its guidance for schools once because it encouraged schools to ignore the rules on single-sex toilets.

“Our briefing means that Scottish head teachers can finally be confident that they are getting sound advice taken directly from the equality watchdog’s legal guidance.

“Following the EHRC’s update, the Scottish Government needs to urgently revise its guidance for schools again to make clear that single-sex facilities mean just that.” 

Representing the Scottish Government defending an appeal by the grassroots group For Women Scotland over its interpretation of the Equality Act, Ruth Crawford KC yesterday told judges in the Inner House that the Scottish Government recognises that transgender people without a gender-recognition certificate have no entitlement to use opposite-sex facilities. 

This aligns with the EHRC guidance, but conflicts with the Scottish Government’s own guidance to schools, which was published in 2021 after previous guidance was withdrawn following concerns that it was unlawful. 

The Sex Matters briefing for head teachers notes that the Equality Act requires that schools do not unlawfully discriminate based on sex (being male or female, a boy or a girl) or on the basis of “gender reassignment” (for a child: proposing to undergo transition). The update from the EHRC corrects inaccuracies in the 2014 guidance that relate to what schools must do to avoid “gender reassignment” discrimination.

Examples of unlawful direct gender-reassignment discrimination might include excluding a pupil because they identify as transgender or repeatedly insulting a boy who identifies as transgender by saying he looks silly. But an example which suggested that it would be direct gender-reassignment discrimination not to refer to a female pupil as a boy has been removed. 

Sex Matters is calling for members of the public to send the EHRC briefing to their local head teachers, and for the Scottish Government to revise its own guidance. 

The EHRC is the national regulator on the Equality Act 2010: its technical guidance provides “an authoritative, comprehensive and technical guide to the detail of the law”. 

Notes for editors

The Scottish Government published guidance for schools in 2019 together with LGBT Youth Scotland which stated that there is no law which says that single-sex toilets and other facilities should be used only by people of that sex. 

It stated that children should be allowed to choose whether to use male or female facilities based on their gender identity and that if other pupils feel uncomfortable “they can be allowed to use a private facility such as an accessible toilet, or to get changed after the trans young person is done”.

https://www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/media/1293/supporting-transgender-young-people-digital-version.pdf

This was withdrawn after criticism. Ministers determined that the “guidance that risked potentially excluding other girls from female-only spaces was not legal.”

https://forwomen.scot/03/12/2019/lgbt-youth-scotland-foi/

New guidance published in 2021 still suggested that pupils should be allowed to chose to use male or female facilities but said: “If a young person raises a concern regarding sharing facilities with a transgender young person and it is established that they will experience disadvantage as a result, then the school should seek to respect the rights of all.”

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and-guidance/2021/08/supporting-transgender-young-people-schools-guidance-scottish-schools/documents/supporting-transgender-pupils-schools-guidance-scottish-schools/supporting-transgender-pupils-schools-guidance-scottish-schools/govscot%3Adocument/supporting-transgender-pupils-schools-guidance-scottish-schools.pdf

Links

Sex Matters briefing for head teachers:

https://sex-matters.org/take-action/update-schools-on-ehrc-guidance/

EHRC updated technical guidance:

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/technical-guidance-schools-updated

Scottish Government’s guidance for schools: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and-guidance/2021/08/supporting-transgender-young-people-schools-guidance-scottish-schools/documents/supporting-transgender-pupils-schools-guidance-scottish-schools/supporting-transgender-pupils-schools-guidance-scottish-schools/govscot%3Adocument/supporting-transgender-pupils-schools-guidance-scottish-schools.pdf 

About Sex Matters

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation co-founded in 2021 by Maya Forstater, who is its director, to campaign for sex-based rights. It lobbies for clarity on sex in law and institutions; publishes research, guidance and analysis; supports and mobilises people to speak up; and holds organisations accountable.

About Maya Forstater

Maya Forstater is co-founder and executive director of Sex Matters. In 2019 she lost her job as a researcher with the European arm of American think-tank Center for Global Development, after tweeting and writing about sex and gender. She was the claimant in the landmark test case which established that the protected characteristic of belief in the Equality Act covers gender-critical beliefs. Her website is ​forstater.com and she tweets @MForstater.

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation campaigning for clarity about sex in law, policy and language | sex-matters.org

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Date: 2nd October 2023

The submission marks the first time human-rights arguments on the importance of recognising biological sex are made in a case concerning the legal meaning of sex in UK courts.

Human-rights campaign group Sex Matters is intervening in the For Women Scotland case being heard on appeal by the Court of Session Inner House in Edinburgh on Wednesday 4th October. Sex Matters’ submission, which will be made public on Wednesday, will urge the court to consider the impact of the legal meaning of sex on human rights.

The case concerns whether it is lawful for the Scottish Government to tell public bodies to include men who have transitioned by obtaining a gender-recognition certificate (GRC) when considering whether the legal quote for female board members has been met as part of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018.

In December 2022, Lady Haldane ruled that the Scottish Government’s approach was lawful, saying that the definition of woman in the Equality 2010 Act includes biologically male people in possession of a GRC, recognising their “acquired gender” as female. 

Sex Matter’s intervention supports For Women Scotland’s appeal against this judgment. It argues that it is wrong in law because it did not consider the impact on fundamental human rights protected by the European Convention on Rights, as legally required by the Human Rights Act (1998). 

Maya Forstater, Executive Director of Sex Matters, said:

“It is important that the impact of the definition of sex on human rights is considered by the court. 

“On its face, this case is narrowly about the operation of diversity quotas on public boards in Scotland. But the legal interpretation concerns the definition of woman in the Equality Act 2010, which has significant implications for women’s rights. 

“This concerns the whole of Great Britain: all our protections against sex discrimination as well as every area where organisations can lawfully treat men and women differently, including single-sex services, single-sex charities and associations, and jobs that need to be done by a man or a woman in order to protect other people’s dignity and privacy.

“Lady Haldane said in her judgment that the issue of transgender rights was beyond the scope of the case. But redefining the words ‘woman’ and ‘female’ in law to include some male people with a government-issued certificate will destroy women’s rights in favour of an expansive view of ‘transgender rights’.

“The Gender Recognition Act is based on the right to privacy and the right to marry, which are protected by the European Convention. But these rights should not override other people’s rights, or make equality and anti-discrimination law unworkable and impossible to understand.”

Sex Matters’ intervention argues that changing the definition of man and woman in the Equality Act to include members of the opposite sex undermines the protection under Article 3 of the European Convention against inhuman or degrading treatment. The European Court of Human Rights has already ruled that being searched or intimately examined by a member of the opposite sex can fall foul of this provision. 

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, said:

“Unless the court makes clear that gender-recognition certificates are not access-all-areas passes that erase people’s actual sex, they will become weapons that can be used to destroy women’s human rights in a wide range of situations. These include the criminal-justice system, the NHS and schools, where employees have powers to undertake searches and medical examinations, and women and girls are supposed to have the right to refuse searches by men – that is, by male people. 

“Blurring sex categories also infringes on Articles 9, 10, and 11: freedom of belief, freedom of speech and freedom of association. Deciding on the meaning of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act cannot be settled with reference only to the narrow application of diversity quotas for Scottish public boards, when that definition also determines whether lesbians are allowed to have women-only associations, and whether charities are allowed to provide rape-crisis services that exclude all men, however they identify and whatever their paperwork.”

Sex Matters’ research on single-sex services, which has been made available to the court, has found that many previously women-only groups and services are coming under pressure to include men who identify as women. 

Sex Matters recognises that the question of how the Gender Recognition Act and the Equality Act interact may only be resolved definitively by way of legislation. Following a debate on this topic in Westminster Hall in June 2023, Sex Matters is calling on the government to resolve the issue via secondary legislation rather than leaving it to courts, which may not consider the impact on wider human rights.

Sex Matters is represented by David Welsh of Axiom Advocates and Rosie Walker, Head of Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Gilson Gray LLP.

Sex Matters will publish its intervention on Wednesday 4th October. 

Notes for editors

About Sex Matters

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation co-founded in 2021 by Maya Forstater, who is its director, to campaign for sex-based rights. It lobbies for clarity on sex in law and institutions; publishes research, guidance and analysis; supports and mobilises people to speak up; and holds organisations accountable.

About Maya Forstater

Maya Forstater is co-founder and executive director of Sex Matters. In 2019 she lost her job as a researcher with the European arm of American think-tank Center for Global Development, after tweeting and writing about sex and gender. She was the claimant in the landmark test case which established that the protected characteristic of belief in the Equality Act covers gender-critical beliefs. Her website is ​forstater.com and she tweets @MForstater.

About Helen Joyce

Helen Joyce is a journalist and author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, an Amazon top ten bestseller, and Times of London and Spectator book of the year (recently reissued as Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights). She was a staff journalist at The Economist between 2005 and 2022, holding several senior positions, including International editor, Finance editor and Britain editor. She is director of advocacy for Sex Matters. Her newsletter can be found at thehelenjoyce.com.

Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation campaigning for clarity about sex in law, policy and language | sex-matters.org

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