Former Tory Chief Secretary Simon Clarke was left looking like a fool during a discussion about gender recognition with Labour MP Dawn Butler.
Also, Butler raised the issue at the House of Commons on Wednesday (23 April), where she noted that even before the ruling, she had witnessed her “butch lesbian” friends being questioned in the women’s toilets.
“I don’t know if anyone else in the House has butch lesbian friends and has been with them when they’ve been told to get out of women’s toilets, but I have. It is not pleasant and it’s not nice,” the Labour MP began.
“So, those people that are using this [the 2010 Equality Act clarification] as a political football again should be ashamed of themselves.
“If you’re saying that trans women have to use men’s toilets, trans men then have to use women’s toilets. How are you going to stop them? By asking to see their genitalia? It makes no sense.”
Toilets
It comes as Trans women should use toilets according to their biological sex, the equalities minister has said.
In response to the UK Supreme Court’s ruling that a woman is legally defined by biological sex, Bridget Phillipson stopped short of explicitly saying trans women should use the men’s toilets.
But she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The ruling was clear that provisions and services should be accessed on the basis of biological sex.”
Simon Clarke
One X account shared the clip and wrote: “This moment when the penny drops that trying to implement bathroom bans is an impossibility for the former Tory Chief Secretary Simon Clarke is delicious.”
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