[8] In June 2020, the European Commission argued these medical requirements as "intrusive" and inconsistent with international human rights standards.
[20][21] In several countries, including the United Kingdom, gender-critical feminist groups have formed alliances with right-wing, far-right, and anti-feminist organisations.
[27][28] Later in 2016, in England and Wales, the government of Prime Minister Theresa May proposed revising the Act to allow for self-identification, with a public consultation on the reforms launched in 2018.
[30] In Scotland, ahead of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged to review and reform the way that trans people change their legal gender.
[27] Some academics have described the groups as a "women's cooperative constellation"[32] (a term referring to a "network of actors from the organisations of the state, civil society, and universities and consultancies"[27]) that directly opposes the plans of the Sturgeon government.
The LGB Alliance accused Stonewall of "undermining women's sex-based rights and protections" and "introducing confusion between biological sex and the notion of gender.
[53] The case arose when Maya Forstater sued her employer, the Centre for Global Development Europe, after her contract was not renewed due to her expression of gender-critical beliefs.
[54] In April 2021, the British Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) submitted evidence supporting Forstater in the case.
[56][57] In February 2022, Vice News reported on leaked sections of an unpublished 2021 EHRC guidance document advising businesses and organizations to exclude transgender individuals from single-sex spaces—such as toilets, hospital wards, and changing rooms—unless they possessed a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
[58] In June 2022, the EHRC stated that transgender people could be excluded from single-sex spaces as long as it serves a legitimate aim, such as "privacy, decency, to prevent trauma or to ensure health and safety".
[59] In July 2024, the EHRC issued further guidance clarifying that sex-based occupational requirements included sex as defined by a GRC.
However, under Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010, employers were allowed to exclude transgender individuals, including those with a GRC, from roles with sex-based occupational restrictions.
[60][61] In 2020, the High Court ruled in a case championed by a number of anti-trans groups and figures that transgender patients under the age of 16 could not receive puberty blockers to prevent the development of unwanted secondary sex characteristics.
[74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81] The World Professional Association for Transgender Health issued a statement criticizing the review's methodology and evidence base, stating that it "deprives young trans and gender diverse people of the high-quality care they deserve.
[93][94][95] Wes Streeting,[96] Hilary Cass,[97] and the Commission on Human Medicines described a lack of evidence and concerns over its safety as reasons for the ban.
[103] In 2022, the Conservative government under Boris Johnson reversed plans to include conversion therapy targeting gender identity in a proposed ban on the practice.
The gender-critical group Transgender Trend criticized the coalition's letter, referencing the interim findings of the Cass Review.
[107][108] The statement said: This document seems to view gender incongruence largely as a mental health disorder or a state of confusion and withholds gender-affirming treatments on this basis.
WPATH, ASIAPATH, EPATH, PATHA, and USPATH call attention to the fact that this "psychotherapeutic" approach, which was used for decades before being superseded by evidence-based gender-affirming care, has not been shown to be effective (AUSPATH, 2021; Coleman et al., 2022).
They further said that several people involved in the review "previously advocated for bans on gender-affirming care in the United States, and have promoted non-affirming 'gender exploratory therapy', which is considered a conversion practice.
[124][125] Under 2024 guidance published by the Crown Prosecution Service, trans people who fail to disclose their birth sex to a sexual partner, whether deliberately or not, can be charged with rape.
[126] As of 2023, trans women imprisoned in England and Wales are to be housed in men's prisons if they have committed any violent or sexual crime, or if they have "male genitalia".
[127][128] In 2021, the Council of Europe's Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination issued a warning regarding the United Kingdom, stating that: ongoing social, political and legal debate [in the United Kingdom (UK)] about what constitutes harmful discourse when it comes to trans people and their rights, and arguments defending freedom of expression have been – and are still being – used as a tool to justify transphobic rhetoric, further penalising and harming already marginalised trans people and communities The committee concluded that the "'gender-critical' movement, which wrongly portrays trans rights as posing a particular threat to cisgender women and girls, has played a significant role in this process.
"[129][130] In May 2023, a United Nations investigation found that the British Equality and Human Rights Commission had intentionally acted to reduce human rights protections for transgender individuals with legal gender recognition, and that rhetoric by both the British media and politicians had created a climate of hostility against trans people in the UK.