Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives will change the Equality Act to rewrite the definition of sex and allow organisations to bar transgender women from single-sex spaces, including hospital wards and sports events.
The party will make clear that the protected characteristic of sex means biological sex, enabling those who wish to bar male-bodied people from organisations or activities to do so.
Badenoch said it would provide reassurance for services such as those aimed at domestic abuse victims.
“Whether it is rapists being housed in women’s prisons, or instances of men playing in women’s sports where they have an unfair advantage, it is clear that public authorities and regulatory bodies are confused about what the law says on sex and gender and when to act – often for fear of being accused of transphobia, or not being inclusive,” Badenoch said.
“That is why we are today pledging that, if we form a government after the election, we will clarify that sex in the law means biological sex and not new, redefined meanings of the word. The protection of women and girls’ spaces is too important to allow the confusion to continue.”
Last year, Badenoch asked the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to advise on the change. The equalities watchdog said the new definition would make it possible to exclude trans people from same-sex spaces even if they hold a gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Badenoch said on Sunday that she had concluded the law needed to be changed in order to provide protections based on biological sex, saying it was crucial to allow single-sex groups to meet without those of the opposite biological sex.
The law will still protect against discrimination based on the status of gender reassignment, the Conservatives said.
The party also said it would change the law to make gender recognition a reserved matter which only the UK government could legislate on, a reaction to the row over the Scottish gender recognition bill, which was blocked by Westminster.
Announcing the change, Rishi Sunak said that he wanted to enshrine the right to single-sex spaces in law.
“The safety of women and girls is too important to allow the current confusion around definitions of sex and gender to persist,” he said.
“The Conservatives believe that making this change in law will enhance protections in a way that respects the privacy and dignity of everyone in society. We are taking an evidence-led approach to this issue so we can continue to build a secure future for everyone across the whole country.”
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Sunak and the Conservatives have used the row over gender and trans rights as a key plank of their election strategy against Labour and Keir Starmer.
The EHRC had advised that the change would make it simpler for groups and services to exclude trans people even if they hold an official certificate recognising their gender but said the government should carefully consider that any change could have “possible disadvantages for trans men and trans women”.
The change would allow political parties to restrict trans women with a GRC from benefiting from “women-only” shortlists and other measures aimed at increasing female participation.
It would also make it more straightforward for hospitals to restrict trans women from certain female wards, where at present service-providers must “conduct a careful balancing exercise to justify excluding all trans women”.
