Being trans in Britain in 2026
Today in Focus
The episode examines the profound impact of Britain's new Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on transgender individuals in 2026.
Key takeaways
- The EHRC statutory code of practice, implemented in August, allows for the exclusion of trans people from single-sex spaces based on biological sex.
- Transgender individuals report increased anxiety and avoidance of public facilities like pubs and hospitals due to fear of confrontation.
Main topics
- EHRC statutory guidance
- Transgender rights in Britain
Notable quotes
It's causing trans people to not want to go into public spaces.
Conclusion
The episode provides a sobering look at how legal shifts in identity a
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) This is The Guardian. Today, from toilets to hospital wards, where are trans people supposed to go in 2026? Speaker 7 (0:22) Support comes from WISE, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the world. Your life is global. Your money should be too. Some providers promise no fees on overseas transfers. Don't be fooled. Extra costs often hide in bloated exchange rates. Choose WISE. You can send, spend and receive money in over 40 currencies. Count on the exchange rates that you'd usually see on Google. That's how millions save billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get WISE. Visit WISE.com. Speaker 1 (0:52) So I think we're going to pop into a proper Westminster institution, the Red Lion. Oh, Speaker 8 (1:04) I've never actually been here before. Speaker 1 (1:05) Since last month, thousands of people around Britain have been navigating a painful new reality. 27-year-old Amelia is one of them. Speaker 8 (1:14) Every time I enter a pub, I like to get the vibe. To Speaker 1 (1:17) show you what that's like, we've come to an ornately decorated pub near the Houses of Parliament. It is quite a beautiful pub, I think. Yeah, Speaker 8 (1:24) it looks very beautiful from the outside. Speaker 1 (1:25) There's a mock oil painting of Winston Churchill, wood panelling and the faint, stale whiff universal to all British pubs. When most of us come out for a drink, we might be debating between a lager and an IPA. But Amelia, she's thinking about the toilets. So when you walk in a place, you're immediately kind of assessing where are the loos? Speaker 8 (1:48) Yeah, and having to keep tabs on the toilets and whether I'm going to need one soon or something like that, you know what I mean? Speaker 1 (1:56) We walk upstairs to see what the facilities are like. Speaker 8 (1:59) We're looking at a ladies' toilet and a gentlemen's toilet. Well, I'm noticing the absence of a disabled toilet, so that's obviously put me on edge a little bit. I'm now having to sort of, in my head, mentally prepare to go in there and for anything to happen. It's that fear, it's the underlying fear that the code has really brought out that is just, like, running through my head right now. Speaker 1 (2:22) The Code. That's the source of this new reality. It's statutory guidance from Britain's Equalities Watchdog. Rules that pubs like this have had to follow since August. What it means for Amelia and trans women like her is that in this situation, she should use the men's bathroom. Speaker 8 (2:38) I've got long blonde hair. I'm wearing bright red lipstick. I've got a crop top on and some jeans. I'm dressed very feminine. If I was to go into a male toilet, like, dressed as this... Something's gonna happen. I don't know what's gonna happen, but something is going to happen. Speaker 1 (2:55) It's not just public toilets. It's changing rooms, hospital wards, domestic violence shelters. If you're a trans person in Britain, the code says you shouldn't be in the place that fits your gender identity. Biological sex is what matters now. For most of us, this change may have been completely imperceptible, not even on our radars. But for many trans people, it's completely upended their lives. Speaker 8 (3:21) This is the first major instance in my... lifetime of a policy being passed that has effectively stopped me from doing a very, very common thing that I do in life, which is use the bathroom. And it's causing people to not want to go out. You know, it's causing trans people to not want to go into public spaces. It's causing us to stay shut in. It's ruining a lot of people's lives. It's just the inability to be free. Speaker 1 (3:49) From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pitt. Today in Focus, the fight continues over Britain's new gender code. Speaker 1 (4:03) Peter Walker, you're a senior political correspondent for The Guardian. Thanks for being back with us. Speaker 3 (4:08) Thank you. Pleasure. Speaker 1 (4:09) So how did we get here? Speaker 3 (4:11) We got here because when asked to look into it, the Supreme Court concluded that there was a contradiction between the Equalities Act 2010 and the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which sounds very, very naughty. But basically, for quite a long time, there was a thing that if you had a gender recognition certificate under law, if you were a, you know, trans man who'd transitioned from being a woman. You were treated under law as being a man and vice versa. But there was a small number of cases in which, you know, predatory men would game the system by self-identifying as a trans woman and trying to get themselves into women's spaces, which in a couple of high profile cases did actually take place. Speaker 7 (4:52) Our top story tonight, questions over why a Speaker 2 (4:54) rapist transitioning to become a woman. was remanded to a female jail. While she was in Newhall, she sexually assaulted two inmates who she befriended. The Speaker 3 (5:04) whole crux of this issue is how do you balance the right of spaces which are necessarily single sex, particularly spaces where women are particularly vulnerable, like domestic refuges and also prisons, against the right of transgender people to be treated as the gender into which they are living. And then there was this Scottish group called Four Winners Scotland who challenged it. Speaker 6 (5:32) We never set out to change the law. We were very sure this was the law. And we just wanted the law to be enforced in places and services and spaces where it really, really matters to have single-sex facilities. Speaker 3 (5:45) The Supreme Court basically said, we actually agree with you that under the Equalities Act 2010, the definition of a man or a woman is not their gender, but the biological sex into which they were born. Speaker 2 (6:00) is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex. Speaker 3 (6:09) And that basically threw everything up in the air. Speaker 1 (6:17) So the Supreme Court judgment was last year, but then everyone was waiting for ages, really, for this body called the Equality and Human Rights Commission, or EHRC, to essentially tell them what to do about this ruling, how to interpret it. And that's because the EHRC writes a statutory code of practice which helps organisations interpret this equality law. And they've published this massive document, it's nearly 350 pages long, guidance, which came into force in August. I've taken a look at it and I thought it was going to be pretty straightforward, but it's actually really confusing because it says on the one hand that trans people can be excluded from single sex spaces like changing rooms or toilets. But then at the same time, it's saying that they shouldn't be discriminated against because gender identity remains a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. And I just wondered, do you think that it does provide clarity? on what organisations should do and how they should be policing something like this, something so very personal? Speaker 3 (7:15) I mean, they've given it a good go, but it's impossible really to provide clarity on something where there will always be this rubbing up of two different sets of rights. Some organisations have said that they're worried that if they... do an interpretation that unfairly discriminates against trans people, they'll get a lawsuit from that side. But if they over-interpret it the other way, then gender-critical women's groups will, you know, sue them the other way. In terms of how you enforce it, there is a deliberate bit of a fudge. It's a little reminiscent of the way the US military in the past used to have an approach towards gay people, which is don't ask, don't tell. The idea is that... It's not up to people to become the toilet police and say, hang on, you don't look like a stereotypical man or woman, you know, what's going on? But it does basically say that if there are realistic grounds for thinking someone is trying to, you know, gain the system by being a man trying to go into women's only space, then you are allowed to challenge them. And the worry for transgender people, you know, and for other people who don't necessarily present in a stereotypical way of... you know, the gender in which they live, is that it could cause, you know, not necessarily people being challenged, but just awkwardness and difficulty and just stress, really. Speaker 1 (8:34) And I know that the new Code of Conduct only came in in August, but how have big