Warwick students angry after a change to university policy surrounding toilets sparks transphobia

The University of Warwick has apologised after it published an update to its Trans Inclusion Code of Conduct policy by mistake.

The policy change outlined that trans staff and students would would not be permitted to use the toilets of the gender with which they identify, but instead should use the toilet for the sex they were assigned at birth.

Warwick Uni has since clarified that the update was made in “error” and apologised for the “pain and upset” caused by what it says was a draft version of the policy.

This comes after the Supreme Court decision last month which outlined the terms “women” and “sex” used in the 2010 Equality Act would refer only to cisgender women and “biological sex”. The EHRC released new guidance specifying that “trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities”.

These measures were criticised and branded by many as “transphobic”, with some worries being directed towards the ramifications that this new guidance would have on the lives of a community that already felt unsafe.

Posted onto the university webpage, the policy previously explained that trans people “may use facilities – such as toilets and changing rooms – that are (1) identified as those for the trans person’s sex assigned at birth, or (2) that are identified as gender neutral.

“Trans people may not use single sex spaces identified as being for the gender that is not their sex assigned at birth.”

Although it has now been corrected as a mistake, the error has unnerved some students, with a number of trans and non-binary students sharing statements claiming they now “would “not feel safe to go to the toilet”.

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One student said they felt “very afraid”, adding that they were going to stay at the university for further study, but is now “going to switch and get away from here despite how well I’ve found the teaching and my high grades.”

“I’ve felt very afraid, I’m scared to come onto campus now,” another trans student said. “I was going to stay for further study, but I’m now going to switch and get away from here despite how well I’ve found the teaching and my high grades.”

Warwick Trans Society released in a statement via Instagram that they “believe that this new code of conduct is among other things hateful, possibly unlawful and certainly feeds into the genocidal rhetoric against trans people”, adding that “directing people to deliberately try to clock and potentially out trans people is… grossly inhumane” further noting disappointment that “the university is not taking a stance in support of its trans students and staff”.

Commenters on a subreddit discussed the change, where one user wrote about the University of Warwick: “Diversity and inclusion – when it suits them.” There was also concern raised by prospective students who planned to go to the university but are scared of the ways in which this policy will affect them.

An earlier version of the policy instead outlined that trans students and staff within the university have “a legal right under the Equality Act to access facilities – such as changing rooms and toilets – according to the gender the individual identifies as.”

It added: “It is important that all staff, students and visitors are free to use the most appropriate facilities for them.”

The university is now continuing to review its Trans Inclusion Code of Conduct following the error.

Featured image via YouTube

Warwick SU was contacted for comment