June 19 — In April 2025, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled in relation to the Equality Act 2010 that “man,” “woman” and “sex” would only refer to biological sex rather than gender identity. Following this, in May 2026, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released new guidance, which will come into effect in mid-July 2026. This guidance conflicts with the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Equality Act 2010, which outline that transgender people can change their legal sex.
The EHRC guidelines state that trans people will no longer be able to use the single-sex spaces meant for their gender but will be forced to use those of their sex assigned at birth. This includes bathrooms, changing rooms, single-sex hospital wards and sports clubs. This is a direct attack on trans people’s right to participate publicly in economic and social life. With the new guidance, we can expect to see a shift in policies from health care, employers and youth groups, which could potentially lead to trans people being forcibly outed, risking discrimination. This will have vast implications for trans people’s access to health care.
Trans health care is already under attack; this is not a new development. Before this ruling, 70% of trans people said that they had experienced transphobia when accessing general health care, with 57% saying they had avoided going to the GP in fear of transphobia. The conditions only worsen when accessing gender-affirming care, with trans people waiting over three years for transition-related surgery. This leaves 85% of patients struggling with negative consequences for their mental health. Trans people are being let down by the already underfunded NHS as the British ruling class cuts back on public spending. This discrimination faced by the trans community is only set to worsen with the new EHRC guidelines.
Currently, trans people can be moved out of single-sex wards into single-person rooms at the request of other patients; this practice will now be the default policy for trans patients following the EHRC guidance. This is a change from prior guidance, which allowed trans people to be treated in the room of their gender preference. It is easy to see that these rules will only result in trans people being forcibly outed and discriminated against, especially as the NHS is already chronically underfunded, meaning that safe provisions for trans people are unlikely to be put in place due to a lack of staff and comprehensive education about the complexities of gender identity and how best to engage with trans people in health care.
The material basis of oppressive gender norms can only be abolished through socialism. Revolutionary Cuba, with its socialist system, is a leading example for LGBTQ+ rights. Its Family Code, updated in a popular democratic process in 2022, challenges the heteronormative nuclear family structure imposed by capitalism, changing the legal view of kinship from merely biological ties to ensure inheritance of property to a more inclusive understanding of kinship. This can be seen as a step forward for trans liberation as it challenges how class society imposes strict gender roles.
This is visible in Cuba’s health care and the right of trans people to self-determination, allowing citizens to change their gender without having to undergo gender-reassignment surgery or the extensive and invasive processes which we see in Britain. Since 2008, the national commission has been responsible for ensuring all transgender citizens are provided with comprehensive health care, which includes gender-affirming care. Through this, we see true liberation for LGBTQ+ people; this can only be achieved through socialism. We must stand in solidarity with Socialist Cuba!
The British Supreme Court ruling and EHRC guidelines were supposedly made to “protect women,” but this is far from the truth; they only reinforce the oppression of women under capitalism through the policing of gender roles. As the capitalist system struggles, we see a new wave of attacks on trans rights from the ruling class to stabilize the economic system. These attacks protect their profits by cutting back services on the NHS and by reinforcing the structural violence that transgender people face from the strict gender binary enforced by the gendered division of labor in the capitalist system. Trans people have the right to live safely, and an attack against one is an attack on us all. For trans liberation, we need socialism.
Source: Fight racism! Fight imperialism!
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