Deception, Rogues & Lies
How the EHRC is Gaslighting the UK – Opinion
LIES!! DECEPTION!! That’s not just a line declared by actor Forest Whitaker in the movie “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” but the unofficial mantra of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, or at least it feels that way when it comes to them talking about, and legislating against, trans people.
The EHRC is currently busy rewriting its guidelines on how best to exclude and segregate trans people like me from certain areas in society, after a very strange consultation. It has simultaneously been busy gaslighting the UK government, and British society, into believing that trans people have always been excluded from said society. It’s obviously, just that no-one, not even the people that wrote the various laws back in the day, knew.
There’s a quote often attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister for Propaganda, that says: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Now, whether he actually said it, or whether it should be attributed to someone else, isn’t the point of this. Rather, that the adage itself remains true, and that is what seems to be occurring right now.
Back in 2010, when the Equality Act was put in place, it wasn’t perfect, but it did protect trans people; not just with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also protecting trans women from sex-based violence and discrimination. The same as cis women.
The Equality Act 2010, meshed well with the existing Gender Recognition Act from 2004, and provided additional protections and support for those trans people who were going through the system, but hadn’t yet acquired a Gender Recognition Certificate (for whatever reason).
And so life went on, with no one harmed or put at risk by including trans women as women in law. For fifteen long years, trans people, simply got on with their lives. Sure there was still plenty of bigotry and hatred aimed at trans folk, especially when high profile figures decided to join in, but legally trans people were protected, and we had rights. The law allowed us to live our lives, despite any hate, and we did just that.
Then came 2025, and the casual rewriting of UK history.
For fifteen years, trans women in the eyes of the Equality Act were women. This had been the intent of the original authors of the Act, and the intent of the government of the day (Labour, as it happens). But in 2025, the UK Supreme Court changed all that intent, and unleashed a nightmare upon trans people, by stating that: for the purpose of the Equality Act 2010, trans women were now not women, and that trans men were therefore not men. They went on to say that this only applied to the Equality Act, but no one really listening to that part.
Immediately, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) drew up some Interim ‘guidance’ that told businesses, public bodies, organisations, and everyone else what they were required to do, to exclude trans people. All while using the Supreme Court ruling as justification. They were quickly joined by the UK government, who endorsed the EHRC guidelines almost immediately, and encouraged people to follow them.
Now, this is all bad stuff, and has lead to employers (illegally) implementing toilet bans, public bodies denying trans people access, the police using male officers to strip search trans women (and those they perceive to be trans), and much more; but where does the rewriting of history come in, you ask?
Well, normally, in order to change the law to exclude trans people, you would need to introduce new legislation that removes said rights. You know, democratically.
This is the approach various American States have taken over the years, such as Texas, Florida, North Carolina etc; with various degrees of ‘success’, but this sort of thing in the UK requires voting on, and approval by, not only the House of Commons, but also the House of Lords. It’s lengthy, and it can see Bills modified or thrown out. It also takes time. But, what if, instead, you rewrite history, and persuade people that the laws that provided protections, rights, and safety for all trans people for 15 years, never actually protected them at all?
It’s a cunning (and seemingly evil), plan, that wouldn’t require any changes to the existing legal structure; merely a ‘clarification’ that the people affected (trans people), were never actually protected in the first place, despite all previous communications regarding these laws to the contrary. Even though the reality is that trans people have always been protected, both as trans people, and for trans women, as women.
So that’s what is currently happening. People invested in doing so, are telling the public that trans people were never covered, telling trans folk that we were lied to about our rights and legal status, and that we will just have to settle for less.
And that brings us back to that quote: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” And that’s what the EHRC and government are currently doing. Will you fall for it?
A Wipe Out Transphobia Member, Opinion Piece,
Written and submitted by Joanne R’rith
