Latest news with #lavatories
Telegraph
24-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Row over BBC presenter's scheme for trans access to school lavatories
A BBC presenter has provoked a row over a scheme to help transgender people access lavatories in schools. Dr Ronx Ikharia, a 'black, queer, transmasculine, non-binary' medical doctor who has hosted children's shows for the BBC, is behind the new 'trans allyship' scheme. It will distribute bright yellow 'trans allies' badges to schools which state 'Safe With Me'. Those wearing the badges will be expected to help 'accompany trans+ people to their preferred facilities if asked'. This is to counteract the alleged threat to transgender people posed by April's Supreme Court ruling, the doctor said in an online fundraiser for the badge scheme. Transgender access to single-sex toilet facilities has become a matter of law after the ruling that biological sex, and not self-identified gender, is what legally allows access to women's spaces. Now Dr Ikharia has said the ruling 'means trans+ people may be forced into spaces where they don't feel safe', adding: 'Toilets are one of the most dangerous of these spaces.' However, the campaign has prompted criticism from campaigners who have pushed against the granting of access to women's spaces. Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at the human rights charity Sex Matters, told The Telegraph: 'This campaign is a safeguarding catastrophe. Asking children to approach adult strangers and take responsibility for their safety in toilet facilities puts children at obvious and serious risk. 'As for adults wearing 'safe with me' badges that children are supposed to believe, it's hard to think of a more irresponsible idea. ''Safe' isn't something a person can identify as, and adult strangers who signal to children that they are 'safe' are a safeguarding red flag. 'Any organisation involved in distributing these badges is either extremely naive or is willing to undermine safeguarding. Dr Ronx is a well-known children's entertainer, and her responsibility for the campaign raises serious questions. 'We will be raising this campaign as a safeguarding issue with Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary.' In addition to escorting people to their facilities of choice, badge-wearers will also be expected to commit to 'active allyship' and 'trans+ safety, dignity and joy'. Dr Ikharia, who fronted the CBBC show Operation Ouch, hopes to roll out the badges in schools, and also 'shops, offices and public spaces' across the UK with the intention of encouraging 'safe' access to toilets. The doctor has cited personal experience of the issue, writing: 'As a transmasculine, non-binary person, I've faced abuse, exclusion and humiliation in public toilets. 'I've skipped water to avoid them. I've begged shops to let me use their facilities. I've run into disabled toilets and out again, heart racing. I've needed friends to accompany me, just to feel safe.' Dr Ikharia's new scheme has raised more than £10,000 on the crowdfunding site Go Fund Me and was officially launched this week in London. Last year, Dr Ikharia, who was last publicly listed as working at the Homerton University Hospital in Hackney, took part in a protest outside the Royal College of General Practitioners in London, where medical professionals had been discussing the dangers of prescribing drugs to children to help them transition. Dr Ikharia has worked for the BBC since that protest and appeared on Operation Ouch as recently as March, according to iPlayer. The exposure of children to the concepts of multiple genders and the ability to move between genders has proven controversial for a number of organisations. An audit of publishers recently found that toddlers are being targeted with 'sparkly' books that present a positive vision of being transgender. Sex Matters and SEEN in Publishing, another campaign group, found the belief that being a woman can be independent of biological sex had become 'dominant' in the industry. The Scouts have been encouraged to use gender-neutral language and to drop the terms 'mum and dad', with members encouraged to guide children through a card game called 'Pronoun Pairs', which has been devised as a way of teaching them about gender identity.
Telegraph
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Universities should defy law on lavatories for trans people, says union
Universities should defy the Supreme Court ruling on lavatories for transgender people, a union has said. The University and College Union has said transgender women should be allowed to use women's facilities and transgender men should be allowed to use the men's lavatories. Its congress voted to 'stand shoulder to shoulder with the trans community' after the Supreme Court last month ruled that the words 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex. In the wake of the ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued interim guidance, saying trans women 'should not be permitted to use the women's facilities' in workplaces or public-facing services like shops and hospitals, with the same applying for trans men using men's lavatories. More detailed draft guidance was published last week, with a consultation period running until June 30. The guidance says people can be asked to confirm their birth sex so long as it is 'necessary and proportionate for a service provider, those exercising public functions or an association to know an individual's birth sex to be able to discharge their legal obligations'. It cautions that any such question 'should be done in a sensitive way which does not cause discrimination or harassment'. The University and College Union (UCU), which is the UK's largest post-16 education union and represents more than 120,000 education staff, held its congress on Monday where delegates backed four motions committing the union to 'fight back against unprecedented attacks on trans people's human rights'. Jo Grady, the union's general secretary, said: 'Our congress has once again committed our union to stand shoulder to shoulder with the trans community in the fight for equality. 'This year trans people have suffered a wave of attacks against them, but UCU remains steadfast as one of their most vocal allies. 'We refuse to allow trans people to be the collateral of a Right-wing culture war and while they continue to experience violence at home, in the workplace and on the airwaves, we will stand by them.' As a result of one of the motions, the UCU has resolved to call on employers to support the right for staff to use the gendered spaces appropriate to them, saying that the Supreme Court ruling contradicts the current practices that allow this at most post-16 institutions. As part of the motion the congress also committed to issuing a statement to members and on social media platforms 'expressing concern' at the ruling and 'reaffirming our steadfast commitment to defending trans people', and to call on employers to develop and implement trans-inclusive policies 'as a matter of urgency'. Another motion criticised the Government's 'decision to ignore the damning critiques' of the Cass Review, and in its wake the union will write to the Health Secretary condemning the report's findings and methods. Published last year, the review concluded children had been let down by a lack of research and evidence on medical interventions in gender care, which led to NHS England announcing a new plan which requires new referrals into the clinics to have been seen by a GP and mental health specialist or paediatrician first. The UCU will also advocate for healthcare that 'affirms and values' trans people in its letter to Wes Streeting as it criticised the ban on the supply of puberty blockers for young trans people – which was made permanent in December and which means they are not prescribed on the NHS to children for the treatment of gender dysphoria. Plans remain in place to set up a clinical trial into the use of puberty blockers this year, although no patients have yet been recruited while ethical and regulatory approval is awaited. Two motions were concerned with the actions of US president Donald Trump's administration, with one condemning its 'concerted attacks upon trans people'.
