Hunter Schafer calls UK trans bathroom guidance ‘stupid’

Hunter Schafer has criticised UK guidance on single-sex spaces, calling laws restricting trans people’s access to facilities such as public toilets “stupid” and questioning how they could be enforced.

The 27-year-old actor and model made the comments in an interview with Elle, in which she also spoke publicly for the first time about undergoing gender-affirming bottom surgery in December.

Asked about UK guidance on single-sex spaces, including toilets and changing rooms, Schafer compared the situation to North Carolina’s controversial HB2 legislation, known as the “bathroom bill”.

“That’s why these laws are so f****** stupid,” she said. “It was the same thing with HB2 in North Carolina. You can make it the law, but are you deploying a little gender policeman to stand outside the bathrooms?”

The UK guidance followed an April 2025 Supreme Court ruling that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

The guidance states that people should use single-sex facilities, including public toilets and changing rooms, in accordance with their sex as assigned at birth.

Schafer has direct experience of legal challenges over trans people’s access to facilities. In 2016, she became the youngest plaintiff, aged 17, in a legal challenge to North Carolina’s HB2. The law was fully repealed in December 2020.

In the same interview, Schafer spoke about her experience of gender-affirming surgery, describing the procedure as a positive one. “I just had bottom surgery in December, which was amazing, and I love it so much,” she said.

The actor also reflected on her understanding of her gender identity, describing it as “flatter” and explaining how she sees herself as a woman while embracing the possibilities of queerness.

“I’m a woman. I’m a girl,” she said. “I feel like that’s the magical thing about queerness. On an ideological level, it’s about possibility and expansion and growth, and being on that journey and finding yourself.”

Schafer also described the intensity of her recovery, revealing that she was limited to around 150 steps a day.

She rented a large apartment where friends and family could visit and support her as she healed.

Schafer is best known for playing Jules Vaughn in HBO’s Euphoria. She has also become a prominent voice in discussions around trans rights, drawing on her own experiences to challenge policies affecting transgender people.