The House of Commons has been forced to apologise after allowing a transgender woman to use female-only toilets despite the recent Supreme Court ruling that protects single-sex spaces.
Robin Moira White, a trans barrister who is a biological male, was directed to use the ladies’ loos in Portcullis House last week after attending a meeting of the women and equalities committee in which the landmark judgment was discussed.
White, 61, said parliamentary employees had been told that swift access to the lavatories was required because of a health condition.
But the barrister, who was shown to the closest ones to the Thatcher Room, where the committee had met, was challenged outside the facilities by women’s rights campaigners, Kate Harris and Heather Binning, who had attended the same hearing.
Harris said that a staff member told her ‘We don’t do that here’ in reference to excluding trans women from female loos.
She added: ‘We were in the mother of all parliaments, and it was not adhering to the law. It was not the fault of staff, who clearly have not been trained in how to deal with these issues.’
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