Transgender women advised to call 999 if asked to leave female-only lavatories

Transgender women should call 999 if they feel unsafe through a request to leave a women-only lavatory, Britain’s largest child transgender charity has said.

The advice from Mermaids comes amid lingering confusion over the long-awaited new guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the watchdog, for providers of single-sex spaces such as refuges, changing rooms and hospital wards.

The EHRC ruled last month that trans women, who are born as males, can be excluded from female-only spaces if there is a legitimate reason such as protecting privacy and dignity.

The landmark legal opinion aimed to clear up the fierce debate between activists and feminists over the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment in the 2010 Equality Act.

‘Not inclusive enough of trans people’

But Mermaids has become the latest lobby group to issue its own guidance in response, saying it is “not happy” with the regulator’s approach “because we feel it is not inclusive enough of trans people”.

In its helpsheet, titled “single-sex spaces: know your rights”, the influential young people’s trans charity lists a series of tips for “what to do if someone asks you to leave a facility”.

The first tip, branded “grossly irresponsible” by lawyers, stated: “If you are at risk of harm, try and get somewhere safe and call someone you trust, or the emergency services if you feel comfortable in doing so on 999.”

It also recommends that gender-dysphoric youths “ask the facility/your school for a copy of its trans inclusion policy” and “ask the facility/your school for its reasons for your removal, in writing”.

Trans people are also urged to direct the school or venue to Mermaids phone lines and “take notes”. The charity stresses that the EHRC’s guidance “is not the law and cannot be enforced” and that “you still have the right to access the services and facilities you did before the guidance was published”.

Leading lawyers have said it shows how venues such as schools, gyms and hospitals are caught in a war of words between activists and regulators, with little clarity on how to act.

Amanda Jones, a barrister specialising in equality law at Great James Street chambers, told The Telegraph: “If an organisation is lawfully providing single-sex facilities, refusing to leave would certainly be a problem. The provider would be entitled to use security or call the police.

“Anyone wishing to challenge such an organisation’s policy should do so calmly and use the provider’s complaints policy. Mermaids appears to advise ignoring the EHRC’s advice, but then relies upon assertions about the law which are unclear and dubious.”

‘Advice to call 999 is grossly irresponsible’

Naomi Cunningham, a discrimination law barrister, added that “the advice to call 999 is grossly irresponsible”.

“Being entitled not to suffer discrimination on grounds of gender reassignment is not the same thing as being entitled to be treated as the opposite sex,” she said.

The EHRC’s advice also sparked a mutiny from NHS diversity chiefs who vowed to ignore it, prompting the embattled regulator’s chairman, Baroness Falkner of Margravine, to insist “campaign groups or vested interests” would not sway the law in their favour.

Mermaids was contacted for comment.