Understand the LGBTQIA+ news: Recommended, but not forced segregation - Labour's legacy on Trans+ rights

Angry? Upset? Exhausted? We hear you.

Today, we bring you a worrying development, as the UK Equality Watchdog sets out a code of practice that attempts to make being transphobic the norm.

It is, no doubt, a difficult read.

But it also affords our community and our allies the space to reject transphobia. It does not make Trans+ exclusion mandatory. While it strongly recommends it, and affords space for those who wish to exclude to do so – it also creates an opportunity for us to fight back.

It is unlikely it will be challenged in Parliament, even if legal routes could see it taken to task. What it does do, though, is something I know QueerAF readers will cherish.

It gives us the information we need – to know about what we're fighting back against.

That fight has been well underway for some time now. After the shockwaves of this practice settle over the long weekend, I'm confident that together, it will accelerate and galvanise us all to ensure that Trans+ inclusion is the norm.

We are Queer As Fuck, and so are you.

Jamie Wareham
Founder of QueerAF

Understand the LGBTQIA+ headlines and keep track of the latest queer content and perspectives. The QueerAF newsletter is written by Jamie Wareham and a different queer creative each week.

💬 This week:

• EHRC: We look at how the new EHRC code of practice will reshape public life for Trans+ Britons, treating them as a third gender.
• India: The country has followed the UK in medicalising the Trans+ legal gender recognition process, Aliyy Azad Malik writes in a Queer Gaze in partnership with Inclusive Journalism Cymru.
• Gender-critical spending power: A new report explores how coordinated, funded and successful the anti-trans movement is at disproportionately being featured in media narratives. We take a look at the key takeaways.

Skip the doomscrolling and support queer creatives instead. We are QueerAF – and so are you.

Recommended but not forced segregation: New guidance could force Trans+ people out of public life

TL;DR: A new code of practice by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has been laid before Parliament. Described as a "toned down" version of a previous draft, it sets out how Trans+ people should be protected from discrimination, while affording organisations that wish to exclude Trans+ people legal defences in order to do so.