1 October 2010: Changes to equality law come into effect today

From Tim Hopkins, Eqaulity Network

Most of the Equality Act 2010 came into effect today. The Act replaces the previous set of many different anti-discrimination laws, with a single piece of legislation. It covers Scotland, England and Wales.

For sexual orientation equality, the new Act makes very little change to the law, so far (but see below). For transsexual people, there are some significant changes today, including:

· The new Act bans discrimination or harassment on grounds of gender reassignment, like the previous law did, but the definition of gender reassignment is widened slightly so that it protects people who intend to transition, or have transitioned, even if they have not had any medical supervision (previously, medical supervision was required for the law to protect you).

· The new law bans discrimination or harassment against someone because they are assumed to be transsexual (even if they are not), or because they associate with a transsexual person. So for example if you are harassed at work, or by a provider of goods and services, because a member of your family or a friend is transsexual, that is now unlawful.

· The new law bans indirect discrimination on grounds of gender reassignment. Indirect discrimination is where a rule is applied to everyone, but the rule affects transsexual people worse. For example, if a service provider has a rule that you have to reveal all the previous names you have used, that might be indirect discrimination against transsexual people.

· The new law bans discrimination in schools on grounds of gender reassignment.

Another very important part of the Equality Act 2010, that will help LGB and T people, is the rule that public services will have to positively promote equality, including for LGBT people. That part of the Act is due to come into effect in April 2011. It will apply to most public services, including the Scottish Government, local councils, the NHS, police, fire and rescue services, the procurator fiscal service, etc.

The Equality Act also includes a rule allowing civil partnership ceremonies in England and Wales to be held on religious premises. That rule is expected to come into effect during 2011.

In Scotland, we are pursuing the issue of religious partnership ceremonies through the equal marriage campaign.

There are some problems with the new Equality Act.

First of all, transgender people who do not intend to transition gender may not be protected. We think the protection should be on grounds of gender identity, covering all transgender people, instead of on grounds of gender reassignment.

Secondly, there may be problems with some of the exceptions that allow discrimination against transsexual people in the provision of single-sex services, and in the provision of insurance.

Thirdly, there is less protection from sexual orientation harassment by providers of goods and services, than there is from harassment on grounds of race, gender, gender reassignment, disability and age. And there is less protection from gender reassignment harassment by schools, than there is for race, gender and disability harassment.

The previous UK Government claimed that there was no evidence such harassment happens, and so did not include protection in the Act. However, if you are harassed in this way, it will usually amount to direct discrimination as well, which is unlawful under the Act.

If you are discriminated against or harassed in any way at work, or by a provider of goods or services (including public services), because of your gender identity or sexual orientation, you should consider complaining and asking for the behaviour to stop, and seeking further advice, from UNISON and for example from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC): www.equalityhumanrights.com

You can also find more details of what the Equality Act 2010 means, at the same web address.

www.equality-network.org