Hackney Council has joined five other London councils in seeking changes to Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance on the management of single-sex spaces.
Mayor Zoë Garbett met with the leaders of Lambeth, Lewisham, Haringey, Southwark and Waltham Forest to discuss the guidance with Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The council leaders said they wanted stronger protections for trans people and called for urgent clarification on the practical effects of the guidance and its Code of Practice.
The guidance entered into force in August following a Supreme Court judgment in the previous year, which ruled that sex under the Equality Act 2010 refers to sex assigned at birth.
It has faced widespread criticism from communities and service providers.
The six councils said the rules on access to single-sex spaces were harming trans people’s rights and increasing the likelihood of their exclusion from public life.
They also raised the need for the EHRC to comply with all equality duties, including the implementation costs it had underestimated for the Equality Act and the Code.
The council leaders further questioned the EHRC’s monitoring of the Act and Code, including its responsibility to propose changes where problems were identified.
They challenged what they described as the EHRC’s unsupported claim that cis women overwhelmingly support trans-exclusionary spaces.
The councils also raised concerns about the EHRC’s response to misinformation identified in connection with the Code of Practice, which they said was leading to disproportionately exclusionary practices.
They referred to the Government’s Impact Assessment, which stated that trans people faced greater risks of harm because of the code.
The issues were detailed in a follow-up letter sent to Dr Stephenson.
In a statement attributed to the six council leaders, they said the EHRC Code of Practice and its effects on trans residents were practically unworkable and morally unacceptable.
The leaders said local services were already experiencing significant problems, with harm affecting trans residents and staff, people perceived to be gender non-conforming, disabled people and communities generally.
They said the meeting had left substantial questions requiring urgent answers and reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring trans people could participate fully in public life in both principle and practice.
The signatories were Zoë Garbett, Mayor of Hackney; Liam Shrivastava, Mayor of Lewisham; Cllr James McAsh, Leader of Southwark; Cllr Paul Perkins, Leader of Waltham Forest; Cllr Tammy Hymas, Deputy Leader of Haringey; and Cllr Natalie Kane, Deputy Leader of Lambeth.