Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to amend Section 7 of the Equality Act 2010 in order to (a) replace the references to the term transsexual with a different term and (b) remove the requirement that a person covered by that Section shall be proposing to undergo, be undergoing or have undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning that person's sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

The Government is clear that we want people who are transgender to be able to live their lives as they wish. On a) we recognise that the term ‘transsexual’ used in the Equality Act 2010 is seen by many to be outdated. We understand those concerns and do not use the term in our policy or communications work. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) explain their approach by stating: “We recognise that some people consider this term outdated, so in this guidance we use the term ‘trans’ to refer to a person who has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment”^[1].

In terms of the scope of that protected characteristic, as the EHRC sets out^[2], the Equality Act definition is broad, does not require medical treatment and will include those who may “prefer to be described as a transperson, or transmale or transfemale or transgender”.

^[1] For example in their April 2022 guidance for providers of single sex spaces: www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/separate-and-single-sex-service-providers-guide-equality-act-sex-and-gender#language

^[2] www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/gender-reassignment-discrimination