EHRC commissioner calls for ‘period of correction’ on trans rights after legal ruling
Transgender people must acknowledge a “period of correction” of rights after the supreme court decision on gender because they “have been lied to over many years” about what their rights actually were, one of the commissioners drawing up the official post-ruling guidance has said.Speaking at a debate about the repercussions of April’s ruling that “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, Akua Reindorf said trans people had been misled about their rights and there “has to be a period of correction, because other people have rights”.Reindorf, a barrister who is one of eight commissioners at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), who was speaking in a personal capacity, said she believes the fault lay with trans lobbyists.However, the human rights campaign groups Liberty and Amnesty called on the EHRC to make sure the rights of trans people were properly considered when it draws up guidance for public bodies on how to implement the changed legal landscape.A director of the trans campaign group TransActual said Reindorf’s remarks were profoundly unhelpful.
Speaking at the event, organised by the London School of Economics law school, Reindorf argued that the impact of the ruling was very clear, condemning what she called “this huge farce with organisations up and down the country wringing their hands and creating working groups and so on, and people in society worrying that they will have nowhere to go to the toilet”.Asked by an audience member about worries the ruling could reduce the rights of trans people, another panellist, the barrister Naomi Cunningham, said trans people “will have to give way”, adding: “It can’t be helped, I’m afraid.”Reindorf, speaking next, agreed: “Unfortunately, young people and trans people have been lied to over many years about what their rights are.It’s like Naomi said – I just can’t say it in a more diplomatic way than that.They have been lied to, and there has to be a period of correction, because other people have rights.
”Reindorf said her comments reflected the fact that before the ruling, the law had been commonly misunderstood because pressure groups argued that trans people who self-identified should be treated as their identified sex, when this was in fact just the case for people with a gender recognition certificate (GRC),The supreme court decided that this mix of different rights made the Equality Act unworkable, said Reindorf, speaking in a personal capacity,She called this “the catalyst for many to catch up, belatedly, with the fact that the law never permitted self-ID in the first place”,“The fact is that, until now, trans people without GRCs were being grievously misled about their legal rights,” she said,“The correction of self-ID policies and practices will inevitably feel like a loss of rights for trans people.
This unfortunate position is overwhelmingly a product of the misinformation which was systematically disseminated over a long period by lobby groups and activists.”In April, the EHRC released interim, non-statutory advice about how to interpret the ruling, which set out that transgender people should not be allowed to use toilets of the gender they live as, and that in some cases they cannot use toilets of their birth sex.A number of critics have called the advice oversimplistic.Chiara Capraro, head of gender justice at Amnesty International UK, said: “The EHRC has the duty to uphold the rights of everyone, including all with protected characteristics.We are concerned that it is failing to do so and is unhelpfully pitting the rights of women and trans people against each other.
”Akiko Hart, Liberty’s director, said: “Any updated guidance from the EHRC must respect and uphold the rights of everyone in society.The supreme court’s judgment was very narrow, and there are a lot of very legitimate questions about how it’s implemented that must be carefully considered.”Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotionA director of the trans campaign group TransActual, jane fae, rejected Reindorf’s argument: “The characterisation of what was previously a widely held view both by the EHRC as well as by civil servants and lawyers working in the field of equality as ‘lying’ is profoundly unhelpful.“Prior to the ruling of the supreme court in April, trans people just wanted to live their lives within the framework as it was understood.‘Activism’ has only really come into being over the last few years in response to a never-ending campaign designed to deprive trans people of rights.
”A spokesperson for the EHRC said: “Akua Reindorf KC spoke at this event in a personal capacity.This was made clear at the event and in the video recording published online.“As Britain’s equality regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission upholds and enforces the Equality Act 2010 to ensure everyone is treated fairly, consistent with the act.“Our board come from all walks of life and bring with them a breadth of skills and experience.This helps us take impartial decisions, which are always based on evidence and the law.
” The headline and text of this article were amended on 6 June 2025.An earlier version summarised the remarks of Akua Reindorf KC as calling for trans people to accept reduced rights.In fact, she had commented: “[Trans people] have been lied to, and there has to be a period of correction because other people have rights.”
A novel idea for men’s emotional growth | Letter
Sarah Moss’s contribution to your debate (‘Men need liberation too’: do we need more male novelists?, 31 May) strikes at the heart of the matter: the issue is not whether men are being published, but whether they are reading – and being supported to develop emotional lives that fiction can help foster.As a researcher on men’s health behaviours, I see growing evidence that restrictive models of masculinity – stoicism, self-reliance, emotional detachment – are linked to poorer mental and physical health outcomes. Literature offers an antidote: access to emotional nuance, empathy and self-reflection. But boys are rarely encouraged to see reading in this way.As a teenager, I rarely discussed books with male friends, even though I secretly read them
Jamie Oliver attacks Essex council for not recognising dyslexia as special need
The celebrity chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver has said he is “disgusted” by his native county of Essex for not formally recognising dyslexia as a special educational need.Discussing his new documentary on dyslexia, Oliver claimed Essex county council did not want “to spend the money” on young people diagnosed with dyslexia, a neurological learning difficulty affecting reading and writing.“I’m disgusted by my county of Essex,” Oliver told a panel including the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, on Thursday. “I come from Essex. I was born and bred in Essex and [went to school] in Essex … and they’ve decided to not recognise dyslexia
Key takeaways from world’s largest cancer conference in Chicago
Doctors, scientists and researchers shared new findings on ways to tackle cancer at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, the world’s largest cancer conference.The event in Chicago, attended by about 44,000 health professionals, featured more than 200 sessions on this year’s theme, Driving Knowledge to Action: Building a Better Future. Here is a roundup of the key studies.An immunotherapy drug could help some cancer patients live years longer without the disease getting worse or coming back, a trial found.Pembrolizumab, sold under the brand name Keytruda, kept head and neck cancers at bay for five years, compared with 30 months with standard care
Free school meals extended but winter fuel changes could tax dead pensioners’ families
Bereaved families of tens of thousands of dead pensioners could be pursued by tax officials to recoup winter fuel payments under a new system being explored by the Treasury, the Guardian has learned.In a further attempt to win public support and quell Labour backbench concerns, ministers are announcing on Thursday that all pupils in England whose families claim universal credit will be eligible for free school meals under an expansion of the scheme.Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, confirmed on Wednesday that more pensioners will get winter fuel payments reinstated this year after weeks of uncertainty over the government’s decision to make a U-turn on scrapping the benefit.Ministers are looking at restoring the payments as a universal benefit and then recouping the money when high-income pensioners fill in their tax returns, as creating a new means test would be a highly complex option.However, government insiders are concerned about a time lag of at least six months between the payment of up to £300 being made and it then being clawed back
EHRC commissioner calls for ‘period of correction’ on trans rights after legal ruling
Transgender people must acknowledge a “period of correction” of rights after the supreme court decision on gender because they “have been lied to over many years” about what their rights actually were, one of the commissioners drawing up the official post-ruling guidance has said.Speaking at a debate about the repercussions of April’s ruling that “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, Akua Reindorf said trans people had been misled about their rights and there “has to be a period of correction, because other people have rights”.Reindorf, a barrister who is one of eight commissioners at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), who was speaking in a personal capacity, said she believes the fault lay with trans lobbyists.However, the human rights campaign groups Liberty and Amnesty called on the EHRC to make sure the rights of trans people were properly considered when it draws up guidance for public bodies on how to implement the changed legal landscape.A director of the trans campaign group TransActual said Reindorf’s remarks were profoundly unhelpful
‘Stress crisis’ in UK as 5m struggle with financial, health and housing insecurity
More than 5 million UK adults are experiencing a triple whammy of financial, health and housing insecurity as British households hit levels of “multi-stress” not seen since the global economic crash well over a decade ago, research shows.One in 10 working-age adults are juggling low income and debt, insecure tenancies and high rents, and problems accessing NHS care. They are at least twice as likely as the rest of the population to report mental stress, sleeplessness and isolation.Researchers said the explosion in multiple insecurity amounted to a “national stress crisis”, with those affected experiencing heightened volatility and uncertainty in their lives and profound feelings of powerlessness and lack of control.The analysis highlights the rise in the number of people experiencing a combination of three separate categories of insecurity to map the extent to which people have the capacity to enjoy a good quality of life, materially and psychologically
Amazon promises fake reviews crackdown after investigation by UK watchdog
23andMe back on the auction block after former CEO makes 11th-hour bid
UK sales of new Tesla cars slump by more than a third amid Musk backlash
Amazon ‘testing humanoid robots to deliver packages’
English-speaking countries more nervous about rise of AI, polls suggest
Trump family disown debut of crypto wallet: ‘I know nothing about this project!’