A couple of weeks ago I attended the annual Gender and Education Association Conference. It’s a conference I last attended in 2017. I don’t have many recollections of the 2017 conference, but what I do remember is pleasant enough: chatting to some interesting people; watching a paper presented in the form of a dance; I think there was cake during the break time. As my memory is vague, I can only presume that my own presentation – which explored what school toilets tell us about understandings of gender and disability in schools (an amalgamation of these two papers: Slater et al., 2018; 2019) – went well enough, and without too much controversy. Running between 2015 and 2018, the research that the paper shared, Around the Toilet, used the toilet as a grounding space to engage public audiences in questions of accessibility, inclusivity and public space, centring the experiences of trans, queer and disabled people. And if we come back to the present day, this research couldn’t be more relevant.
This year’s Gender and Education Conference took place just weeks after the Supreme Court interpreted “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 to mean sex assigned at birth. Shortly after this ruling the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issued an interim update, suggesting that workplaces and service providers should segregate trans people’s toilet use based on their assigned sex at birth (rather than their gender identity) unless separate unisex facilities are available. The EHRC guidance has no formal legal status, and is the subject of legal action by the Good Law Project on the basis that it may be unlawful. Nevertheless, it has created a chilling effect; with some institutions – most notably recently, the UK parliament – already announcing changes to who can use their toilet provision, and trans people left in limbo: waiting to hear what the ruling will mean for their ability to exist in public space.
Conversations with my research participants, friends and family reverberate around my head as I go to the conference: trans kids not using the toilet all day at school, in fear of being outed to their classmates; trans mothers worrying about whether it’ll be safe for them to take their kids out to the local park, library or sports centre over the summer holidays; trans people’s experiences of harassment and violence in the toilet, even before this ruling. And on top of all of this: what’s coming next? We know that there’s more in the pipeline.
Of course, at a conference of this nature, I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. As lots of us in attendance were aware, in the past decade, the UK has dropped from number one in the ILGA-Europe ‘Rainbow Map’ – the most LGBT+ friendly European country in 2015 – to number 22. The Supreme Court ruling will have played a major role in its downgrade by six positions between 2024 and 2025. As somebody working and living in this context, the attacks on trans people’s lives feel relentless; and the atmosphere at the conference reflected this.
During the two days I was there I listened to talks, amongst others, on the experiences of non-binary teachers, on how newspapers reported LGBT+ issues in schools, and a brilliant paper from one of our own Doctoral researchers, Drew Simms, on how trans youth navigate online spaces. All these papers were nuanced, important and the issues treated with care. They also all shared stories of violence, trauma and trans people’s attempts to carry on living normal, mundane lives, amongst sustained attacks on our existence. Depressingly, there were many moments of acknowledgement that since the point of data collection, things had likely gotten worse.
I also took part in a discussion session which asked what we should be doing – as those working in the areas of gender and education, many of us trans or queer ourselves – to respond to recent attacks. The feeling in the room was one of tired, downtrodden people. Indeed, it reflected the findings of a publication I have written with colleagues, Drew Simms and Eleanor Formby, where we explore the extra labour required of LGBT+ people to survive in HE. In the conclusion, we grapple with some of the things I’ve been struggling with over the weeks since the Supreme Court Ruling:
‘We do not yet know what from the [EHRC] guidance will become law and, with respect to this paper, neither do we know how the HE sector will respond. During this unsettling time, we find ourselves asking: where is best to put our own limited energy? Do we engage with our institutions; speak publicly from our areas of disciplinary expertise; reach out to and support mutual aid projects in our local queer communities; talk to our neighbours, clearly situating this ruling as unjust?’ (Slater, Simms and Formby, 2025)
This week I’ve decided one place I will put some of my energy is writing this blog post. I do this not simply for awareness raising, but to point you, my colleagues, as things you can do to be allies to trans people:
- Email your MP and the Minister for Equalities, asking them to speak up for trans people – there is a handy template from Scottish Trans (though the resource isn’t Scotland specific)
- Respond to the EHRC Consultation. You only have until the end of June to do this, but there are several organisations with guidance, including Scottish Trans (who also stress that emailing your MP/the Minister for Equalities is probably your priority if you are only going to do one thing right now).
- Think about the communities that you’re part of and talk to them about what’s going on. Of particular relevance to the SIoE are schools. Talk to the school your child attends/you’re a governor for/you work with: ask how LGBT+ people are represented in the curriculum, tell them you’re still worried about the trans schools guidance and want to make sure they’re prepared to take a stand against it; ask them what they’re doing to ensure that trans pupils and staff are safe and happy in their school. Talk to your students about this too!
- Donate! As what little state support that existed for trans people rapidly decreases, trans people are having to look after ourselves. You can support trans people financially:
- The Trans Legal Clinic and raising money to fight this judgement in court.
- Trans women are the main targets of recent attacks – Five for Five crowdfunds for transfem organisations nationally.
- There are also numerous local trans organisations you can donate to. The Sheffield Electrolysis Project is just one example.
- Reach out to trans people in your lives and let them know you are on their side. I, like many of my trans friends, do not take this as a given.
Dr Tig Slater is associate professor in Queer Disability Studies and Education at the Sheffield Institute of Education.
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