Civil servants threaten to strike over trans ban in women's lavatories

Civil servants are threatening strikes and legal action against guidance prohibiting trans women from using female toilets and changing rooms in Government buildings.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have claimed that such rules would be 'segregating our trans and non-binary members in the workplace'.
Their threats come after the Supreme Court ruled last month that transgender women are not legally women, and that 'sex' in equality law refers to biological sex.
The equalities watchdog said trans women should not be allowed to use female lavatories, and employers, shops and hospitals should act in line with the judgment.
But activists from PCS will put forward a motion at the union's annual conference later this month calling for 'possible, legal and human rights challenges' to guidance that would enforce the ruling in government toilets and changing rooms.
The motion, first reported by the Daily Mail, states: 'Conference rejects biological essentialism and reductionism.
'Conference believes LGBT+ and women's liberation are interlinked and that our bodies do not define who we are, who we love or what we are capable of.'
It added: 'Conference believes any Cabinet Office guidance which prevents trans and gender non-conforming workers from fully accessing their workplace should be opposed in coordination with other civil service unions.'
'Impossible to implement'
The newspaper reported that the motion also stated its opposition to what it called the 'segregation' of trans women in sport.
PCS previously said that interim advice issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on gender was 'not fit for purpose'.
Fran Heathcote, its general secretary, and Martin Cavanagh, its president, said the watchdog's guidance was 'damaging' and 'impossible to implement'.
The motion was reportedly tabled by the Sheffield branch of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), led by Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale, the head of the union's LGBT section.
Another DWP branch in Edinburgh tabled a motion that stated 'trans and non-binary people should have equal access to all services and facilities according to their gender identity'.
It also said that people should be able to 'determine their own legal gender without having to endure any costs, invasive medical processes or bureaucratic hurdles'.
Helen Joyce, of the organisation Sex Matters, said: 'If PCS members pass a motion that denies the biological fact there are two sexes, it will indicate the union has descended into the depths of extreme gender ideology.
'Describing single-sex facilities as segregation is grossly offensive, suggesting women's need for safety and privacy from men is comparable to the horrors of apartheid.'

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