The Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s clarification of the Supreme Court ruling on what is a woman is not as clear as it looks. It says that trans people may not use single-sex spaces – notably lavatories – but must not be left without spaces to use. So, the hunt is on in hospitals, restaurants, sports arenas for space that can be turned into gender neutral lavatories. Perhaps disabled loos can be turned into gender neutral ones, on the basis they’re intended for one person, so long as wheelchair users can jump the queue. I don’t think any of us have a problem with individual lockable lavatories; it’s the ones with shared sink space and mirrors that seem problematic, and obviously those horrible changing areas without cubicles are another matter.
Let me say, then, that I don’t really have a problem with trans people – men identifying as women – using these rather intimate spaces with me, viz, shared lavatories. I never had any difficulty in identifying men from women, myself, on the basis it’s all chromosomal (with vanishingly few exceptions); if you’re XX, come into the parlour, or the changing room; if it’s XY, that’s your loo, over there with M on the door.
Except that would be rather hard on those trans people like my friend – call him Roberta – who has just identified as a woman, and had his bits altered, and wears women’s clothes. He was gay before this, and is a gentle soul. Dressed in modest female dress, he would stand a very good chance of being bullied in the men’s loos; that is, drunk men would find him an easy butt for their exquisite humour. I would extend the hospitality of the female safe space to Roberta on the basis that he’s no threat to anyone, and he’d be no trouble sharing a mirror with, powdering his nose. The same goes for an official I used to deal with who had a previous distinguished record in the armed services: brisk and neat in a smart tweed skirt, he was a pleasure to deal with and would be a very civil person to share space with. He, like Roberta, would have a raw deal in most men’s loos.
The real problem with more assertive trans people is that they’re so very conspicuous, it’s hard not to stare. I had the pleasure of meeting a well known trans model a while back and thought him so utterly bizarre I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I met Eddie Izzard when he was merely a cross-dressing man before identifying as Suzy. I can’t see much difference, other than the hairdo and the lipstick, between his old incarnation and his present one. It would be quite difficult to ignore him.
All of which is to say, let’s not be cruel to trans people just because of this ruling. If someone is dressed as a woman and is civil and pleasant, I don’t have an issue about putting on my lipstick next to him or chatting about the party outside. It’s just that from now on, sharing that space would be an act of hospitality, not a right. So nurses who don’t want to share their changing room with a block shouldn’t have to.
And if the individual concerned is leering at the women and looks like a bloke, we should be entitled to show him the door and require him to leave. I think with a bit of goodwill, that should be manageable, no?
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