New equality ruling protects gender non-conforming people

A new addition to the UK Equality Act, made official on September 16, 2020, will provide greater protection to the gender non-conforming community by recognising non-binary identities. According to Forbes, the amendments to the Equality Act encompass ‘non-binary and gender fluid people’. It confirms these people do ‘fall under the gender reassignment category’ which is already covered in the rulings.

The ambiguity as to whether the UK Equality Act previously covered non-binary people was brought to public attention when a non-binary Jaguar engineer, Ms Taylor, was discriminated against on the ground of gender reassignment. Jaguar argued because of Ms Taylor’s non-binary identity, they did not fall within the definition of gender reassignment. Robin Moira White, a representative of Ms Taylor, said the new rulings are important in ‘recognising those with complex gender identities’.

A spokesperson from Stonewall, which campaigns campaigns for the equality of LGBTQ+ people across the UK, said: ‘This ruling is a milestone moment in recognising the rights of non-binary and gender fluid people to be protected from discrimination under the Equality Act. Up until now, it’s not been clear whether non-binary people would be protected by anti-discrimination legislation, which is what makes this Employment Tribunal judgment so important.’

For more info on Stonewall, CLICK HERE