Single sex services • Page 4
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Toilets matter – a short guide to law and good practice
For any organisation that provides toilets for customers, visitors, staff or students – this guide will help you think through your choices, identify risks of discrimination and harassment, and provide clarity to users. Links to the documents referenced in the guide.
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Caring about Dignity
A group of campaigners, carers, healthcare professionals and parents of children receiving care formed in 2023. Their aim is to collect the stories of those who receive care in their own home or in residential homes, to amplify their voices. Those stories reveal the widespread issues about dignity in...
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Reclaiming Kenwood Ladies’ Pond for women
Take action: if you have experience to share as a Ladies’ Pond user let us know using the survey. The Kenwood Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath is an iconic open-air single-sex service in London that was changed to running on the basis of gender self-ID, without consideration for women...
29th August 2022
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The Attorney General clarifies the law on single-sex services
On 10th August 2022 the Attorney General Suella Braverman gave a speech at the think-tank Policy Exchange. She noted that both public and private bodies are struggling to understand their obligations in relation to single-sex services and the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment. Her speech aimed to...
26th August 2022
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Sex and the law – share our short guide
What does intersex mean? Are you allowed to mention someone’s sex if they don’t want you to? Has someone with a gender recognition certificate changed their sex? Do you have the right to privacy when you’re taking your clothes off? Is it discrimination to keep male people out of...
4th August 2022
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If you can’t say sex, how can you say sexual harassment?
An employment tribunal in Leeds has handed down judgment in a case involving catering staff at a Sheffield NHS Hospital Trust. A female employee reported that a male colleague had asked her to go into a private room and then had quipped about removing his underwear. Another reported having...
20th July 2022
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Why do single-sex services matter?
In February 2022 Sex Matters undertook a survey to find out why single-sex services matter to people. The response was astonishing. In a little over a week we received over 7,000 replies, nine out of ten of them from women. Many included details about how the loss of everyday...
19th July 2022
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (full report)
Full report (133 pages): see also 30-minute read and key findings. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (key findings)
Key findings: see also full report (133 pages) and 30-minute read. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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Why single-sex services matter: privacy, dignity, safety and choice (30-minute read)
30-minute read: see also full report (133 pages) and key findings. Over the past few years many single-sex services and spaces have been changed to mixed sex, but few of the people who use them have been asked how they feel about this. Our report amplifies those voices.
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JK Rowling backs parents told disabled daughter did not have right to female-only care
Louisa Clarence-Smith for The Telegraph Naomi Cunningham is quoted in this article. Harry Potter author warns that special school’s cross-gender policy on intimate assistance endangers 'extremely vulnerable girls'.
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Groups defending sex-based rights
Overview of groups opposing sex self-ID in the UK, set up by individuals and collectives concerned by the failure of established third-sector organisations to defend women’s sex-based rights, child safeguarding and evidence-based policymaking. Also listed on our website.
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Sex Matters response to “More in Common”
More in Common is an organisation that seeks to “build societies and communities that are “stronger, more united, and more resilient to the increasing threats of polarisation and social division”. Perhaps as a response to this challenge from Maya Forstater, it has applied its approach to the gender wars....
16th June 2022
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Is the Attorney General wrong about the law, or is Stonewall?
The Department for Education is developing new guidance for schools on how to accommodate children who identify as transgender. Attorney General Suella Braverman gave an interview which suggests that the guidance will be based on the principle that children who identify as transgender have not changed sex, and therefore...
29th May 2022
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Attorney General clarifies the law for schools
In an interview with the Times, Suella Braverman said schools should treat children according to their sex, not their self-identified gender. Sex Matters welcomes Braverman’s comments, which align with Sex Matters’ guidance. The Department for Education is currently drawing up new guidance for schools. Braverman said: “Under-18s cannot get a...
27th May 2022
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Yes, sex DOES matter in changing rooms
Following our blog post, more than 1,500 customers wrote to Monsoon to tell them why female-only changing rooms are important. Here’s one letter: “Dear Monsoon,What on earth are you thinking? Please get a sense of proportion here. The vast majority of your customers are female and will not take...
13th May 2022
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Self-ID: tell the Scottish Parliament your views!
When the Gender Recognition Act came into force in 2004, it was a single regime for the UK. The Scottish Executive at the time considered whether Scotland should have separate legislation, but rejected this approach due to “cross-border anomalies”. In 2019 the UK government stepped back from its plan...
3rd May 2022
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Statutory Codes of Practice under review
On 27th April 2022, at a seminar on single-sex services and the Equality Act 2010, at Matrix Chambers, Equality and Human Rights Commissioner Akua Reindorf shared news that the EHRC is reviewing the statutory Codes of Practice. This responds to concern that the new guidance on single-sex and separate-sex...
29th April 2022
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![“We make it really clear to all women when they access [the service] that there is the potential for trans women to be in that group and that that’s just how it is.” Service provider cited in the research supporting the Survivors' Network letter](https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Survivors-Network-letter.png)
Single-sex services: the Survivors’ Network response
On 4th April 2022 the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issued new guidance on the law on single and separate-sex services, making clear that services for women don’t have to include trans-identifying males. This has been widely welcomed by leaders of women’s organisations in discussions we have been having,...
27th April 2022
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Analysis of the open letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission from the Survivors’ Network
On 4th April 2022 the EHRC issued new guidance on the law on single-sex and separate-sex services, which was widely welcomed by women’s organisations. But Survivors’ Network (supporting survivors of sexual violence and abuse in Sussex) published an open letter criticising the new guidance. This briefing considers its contents.
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Send our new guidance to a school you know
Schools are calling out for clear guidance on sex and gender to answer questions such as what should they do when they face demands to socially transition children or to keep the secrets of a child who identifies as trans.
25th April 2022
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Sex matters in changing rooms
A story was reported in the media last week about Charlie, a “non-binary teenager”, being excluded from the fitting rooms of the women’s clothing retailer Monsoon in Birmingham. According to the report, Charlie (for avoidance of doubt, a young man) was told to leave the cubicle and then the...
20th April 2022
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Girlguiding settles gender-critical case
Girlguiding UK has released a statement saying it has settled its legal case with Katie Alcock. Katie Alcock and fellow guide leader Helen Watts were expelled from Girlguiding after an investigation into their social-media activity when they raised safeguarding concerns about Girlguiding’s policy of admitting male children and adults...
19th April 2022
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A letter to the Fawcett Society
Dear Fawcett Society Your response to the EHRC guide for separate and single-sex service providers is dismaying. You say “there are occasions where services, in particular those for trauma survivors, should be able to make the decision” . Which services do...
6th April 2022
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Single-sex protected: toilets, refuges, changing rooms can remain single-sex
Mercy Muroki and Patrick Christys talk to Maya Forstater of Sex Matters on To The Point about the 'harassment' she received from trans lobbyists.
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Statement on EHRC guidance
Sex Matters welcomes new guidance on single-sex services and calls on EHRC to revise the statutory codes of practice.
4th April 2022
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Separate and single-sex service providers: a guide on the Equality Act sex and gender reassignment exceptions
Advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, released on 4th April 2022. Read our statement about it.
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Launch of #RespectMySex campaign
Together with Heather Binning of the Women’s Rights Network and Caroline ffiske of Women Uniting, on Saturday 2nd April Maya Forstater, the executive director of Sex Matters, launched the “Respect My Sex if You Want My X” campaign.
3rd April 2022
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What happens when we talk about single-sex services and the law
On 24th March, Sex Matters Director Rebecca Bull presented at the A Woman’s Place is in Manchester event, on single-sex services and the law, in a session chaired by Sex Matters Director Dr Emma Hilton. She spoke alongside Cathy Devine, Judith Green and Maggy Moyo. Here is Rebecca’s presentation,...
28th March 2022
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By and for women
Aurora New Dawn runs services supporting victims of male violence. This research supports Aurora’s commitment to the use of ‘by and for women’ support.
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Human-rights campaigners call for new statutory guidance on single-sex services
Over the past week the Women’s Aid Federation and the Women’s Resource Centre have released strong statements defending single-sex services. They follow the example of nia, which was the first women’s refuge provider to openly and proudly defend single-sex services. Sex Matters supports and applauds the leadership taken by the...
24th March 2022
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Karen Ingala Smith talks about single-sex services
“I have heard leaders of charities that are supposed to support women who’ve been subjected to men’s violence say that it is ‘not safe’ for them to speak about this. That makes me so angry. How can they talk about their safety and accept those salaries when we are...
23rd February 2022