Sadly, regardless of at this time being the primary day of Pleasure Month, there’s some transphobic bullshit happening within the UK proper now. Six weeks in the past, UK Supreme Courtroom dominated that beneath the 2010 Equality Act, an individual’s gender could also be outlined in regulation solely by the intercourse they had been assigned at beginning. The Equality And Human Rights Fee (EHRC), the nation’s unbiased physique that advises organizations on the right way to adjust to the Equality Act, has since issued some disappointing steerage on how that ruling ought to be interpreted in regulation, saying that “trans girls (organic males) shouldn’t be permitted to make use of the ladies’s amenities and trans males (organic girls) shouldn’t be permitted to make use of the boys’s amenities, as this can imply that they’re not single-sex amenities and should be open to all customers of the other intercourse.” The steerage states that trans individuals “shouldn’t be put ready the place there are not any amenities for them to make use of,” however their solely actual choices are to make use of the lavatory corresponding with their intercourse assigned at beginning, or use a lockable single-stall lavatory within the off-chance that one is accessible.
Tons of of UK music figures like Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Imogen Heap, Jessie Ware, Wolf Alice, and extra have since signed an open letter of solidarity to the trans group. However with Leicestershire’s rock-focused Obtain Competition developing in in a few weeks, fest organizers not too long ago despatched an electronic mail in response to a question saying that the occasion could be following the EHRC’s anti-trans lavatory steerage, which has since garnered a variety of pushback. Consideration was dropped at the difficulty final week when the artist Noahfinnce, who performed the competition final 12 months, shared a screenshot of that electronic mail; fellow 2024 performers Pinkshift and Witch Fever additionally chimed in expressing anger in direction of Obtain over the coverage.
Noahfinnce adopted up the preliminary tweet saying that he’d been in “direct communication” with Obtain over the lavatory difficulty. “They needed to clarify that they are going to NOT be policing the bogs in any respect and that the customer support one who despatched out this electronic mail ought to NEVER have used that wording within the electronic mail,” he wrote. So it appears like trans individuals will in all probability be capable to use whichever restroom they’d like at Obtain.
However that disclosure didn’t come quickly sufficient for the favored magnificence model Lush, which terminated its partnership with the competition amid the controversy. Lush introduced final month that it might be on the competition providing a bit rock-themed set of merchandise, cleverly named the “Wash Pit,” to make you odor good after the mosh pit. They gained’t be promoting them on the competition anymore, and Lush additionally not too long ago partnered with some UK-based trans-advocacy teams. (For fundraising, they’re promoting this cute bathtub bomb that appears just like the transgender flag.)
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In direct communication with obtain about this.
They needed to clarify that they are going to NOT be policing the bogs in any respect and that the customer support one who despatched out this electronic mail ought to NEVER have used that wording within the electronic mail. https://t.co/A1rf2CXa0M
— NOAHFINNCE (@noahfinnadams) Might 28, 2025
what fucking music competition polices gendered bogs?? loopy, unsafe, disrespectful, harmful, and a slap within the face to all of the queer and trans artists and followers who convey their creativity and innovation to the choice music area on daily basis @DownloadFest https://t.co/UDptNvVviD
— pinkshift (@pinkshiftmd) Might 27, 2025
And to be clear – apparently the competition may even be offering gender impartial bathrooms which is nice, however to implement guidelines on what particular person can use what bathroom based mostly on their organic intercourse over their gender identification shouldn’t be championing inclusivity and variety https://t.co/dYCR1aAaIF
— WITCH FEVER (@WITCHFEVER) Might 27, 2025
Ref Obtain and its trans exclusion coverage….
Accomplice firms are pulling out.
Simply had this from Lush who had a partnership with the occasion.Thanks Lush Group for placing morals forward of income.
— STRIVE (@strivecampaign.bsky.social) Might 29, 2025 at 8:12 AM
