Jacqui Lewis responds to a letter on the rights of trans people with regard to single-sex spaces
Re the letter from Dr Matti Wenham (Glaring flaws in the idea of excluding trans people from single-sex spaces, 11 April), this issue can be reframed as “allowing single-sex spaces as set out in the Equality Act”, rather than “excluding trans people from single-sex spaces”. Under its terms, single-sex spaces are lawful if it can be shown that this is “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”. As there are many more women in the population than trans women, and therefore many more women than trans women who need to use public toilets, this is certainly proportionate.
The term biological sex does not require quote marks as used by Dr Wenham; it’s a simple and scientifically accepted term.
