A Cambridge college has sparked a row after replacing gender symbols on one of its toilets with signs reading ‘cubicles’ and ‘cubicles/ urinals’.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s new code of practice, reinforcing last year’s Supreme Court ruling that sex in equality law means biological sex not gender identity, came into effect in August.
It ruled that providing mixed sex facilities could amount to direct or indirect discrimination, or unlawful harassment, against biological women.
But now, little more than a month after the code came into force, King’s College at Cambridge University has been accused of providing a ‘hostile environment for people who believe in biological sex’.
The college decided to remove ‘male’ and ‘female’ signs on toilets near its main bar several years ago to read ‘cubicles’ and ‘cubicles/urinals’ in a move which is said to have put some women off using the toilets.
It came following recommendations made by a campus LGBT+ group based off a guide published in 2018.
The guide stated that, based on national averages, there could be between 100 and 150 transgender people at the university who should ‘not be rejected from binary toilets’.
A college alumna has however today accused King’s of ‘caving in to activists’. The college insists that the signs have been in place for ‘several years’.
Signs reading ‘cubicles’ and ‘cubicles/urinals’ are pictured at Cambridge University’s King’s College
The college (pictured) however insists that the signs have been in place for ‘several years’
The woman, who preferred not to be named, told The Telegraph: ‘I think it’s absolutely shocking that a university like Cambridge has decided to cave in to trans activists. That’s shocking and it’s cowardly.
‘Given there are three students at Cambridge who have set up the Cambridge Society for Women and they were harassed and abused and defamed, Cambridge is proving a hostile environment for people who believe in biological sex.
‘Caving in to activists – I don’t think that sends a very good message to the student body. They’re living, particularly in an Oxbridge college, in a particular kind of bubble.
‘You need to learn to tolerate other people’s beliefs and also to understand that the law is the law.’
Another woman meanwhile complained on social media, writing: ‘@kings_college you expect women to traipse around King’s looking for guaranteed male-free toilets?
‘Your provision here is male-biased and hostile to women as a sex class. Everyone knows what sex they are. Women and men have different hygiene needs. Do better.’
Helen Joyce, the director of women’s rights charity Sex Matters, said the signs at King’s represent the ‘worst of both worlds for men and women’.
It comes just a day after Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey embroiled his party in a trans rights row as he demanded the EHRC’s guidance be scrapped.
Lib Dem leaders voted overwhelmingly in favour of replacing the code, dubbed ‘discriminatory and unworkable’, with a new one ensuring that everybody ‘can safely access public facilities and providers are protected from legal risk’.
Dr Zoe Hollowood, who chairs the campaign group Liberal Voice for Women, told the conference: ‘It is not about restoring trans rights for they have lost none.
‘It is about ripping out rights from women and destroying the clarity of the Supreme Court ruling.’
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It comes just a day after Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey (pictured today) embroiled his party in a trans rights row as he demanded the EHRC’s guidance be scrapped
Only last month, women working at a major NHS Trust were left feeling ‘intimidated’ after its leaders told trans staff they can still use female toilets and facilities.
The Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust announced there would be no ‘immediate changes to its policy’ just days after the EHRC’s code came into force.
It meant trans staff could still use toilets and changing rooms facilities which should only have been open to women based on their biological sex. The trust told staff it was awaiting further guidance from NHS England.
A female member of staff at the Trust said at the time that women were upset by the email but that it was not ‘safe’ to raise it because it was ‘signed by all the top people at the trust’.
Of the ordeal in Cambridge this week, King’s College said: ‘King’s College aims to be a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for visitors and members of the College community.
‘There are toilet facilities available for single sex and gender-neutral use in multiple locations around the College.
‘Toilets and washing facilities are provided to support our core mission of delivering education to our students.
‘The signage on the toilets referenced has been in use for several years; these toilets are one part of our wider provision. The College provides a number of different types of facilities for both our students and guests to the College.’
