Cambridge council considers changing transgender toilet access

Cambridge City Council is rewording its policy on transgender access to public toilets

A city council wants to change its public toilet access policy for transgender people, two months after a councillor stood down over the issue.

Cambridge City Council wants to replace references to "transgender" with "gender reassignment" or "transsexual people", said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Self-identifying trans women can currently use women-only facilities.

Former councillor and activist Sarah Brown described the move as "worrying".

Read more Cambridgeshire stories

Ann Sinnott quit as city councillor in July, saying the policy allowing self-identifying trans women, whose gender is different from their 'assigned' sex at birth, to access women's facilities was in breach of the Equality Act 2010.

Ms Sinnott claimed there could be a "risk" to women if trans people accessed spaces where women "expect privacy". She said her views were "not anti-trans" but "pro-women".

The council policy, which has been in place since 2010, states: "Transgender people will not be excluded from gender-appropriate single sex/sex segregated facilities operated by the council."

Amendments, to be discussed at a meeting in October, include replacing the term "gender" with "sex", and replacing references to "transgender" with "gender reassignment" or "transsexual people", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Former councillor Sarah Brown said the plans were "worrying"

The council said these changes would mean the policy was consistent with the law.

It also means the council has discretion to apply the Act's "single-sex exemption" - which enables public bodies to exclude transsexual people from "single sex spaces, facilities and jobs" where there is "clear evidence" this is necessary.

Former city councillor Sarah Brown, who is also transgender, said rewording the policy meant the council would be able to "discriminate" against trans people.

"Despite agreeing that trans women are women and trans men are men, the Labour council has decided it now wants the right to discriminate against us," she said.

"This is disappointing and worrying. Should we now carry our passports if we want to use the Lion Yard loos?"

A spokesman for Cambridge City Council said: "These changes do not alter the levels or type of services offered for transsexual people, but instead seek to ensure legal compliance."

Anna Smith, executive councillor for communities, said the council was committed to equality.