Sadly, regardless of right this moment 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 Court docket dominated that underneath the 2010 Equality Act, an individual’s gender could also be outlined in legislation solely by the intercourse they have been assigned at beginning. The Equality And Human Rights Fee (EHRC), the nation’s impartial physique that advises organizations on learn how to adjust to the Equality Act, has since issued some disappointing steerage on how that ruling needs to be interpreted in legislation, 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 lads’s amenities, as this can imply that they’re now not single-sex amenities and should be open to all customers of the alternative intercourse.” The steerage states that trans individuals “shouldn’t be put ready the place there aren’t 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 toilet within the off-chance that one is on the market.
Lots 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 Pageant arising in in a few weeks, fest organizers lately despatched an e mail in response to a question saying that the occasion can be following the EHRC’s anti-trans toilet steerage, which has since garnered a number of pushback. Consideration was delivered to the difficulty final week when the artist Noahfinnce, who performed the pageant final yr, shared a screenshot of that e 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 problem. “They needed to clarify that they are going to NOT be policing the bogs in any respect and that the customer support one that despatched out this e mail ought to NEVER have used that wording within the e mail,” he wrote. So it feels like trans individuals will in all probability be capable of use whichever restroom they’d like at Obtain.
And the fest launched a press release on social media:
On the coronary heart of Obtain is acceptance – we stand with all members of our group and need everybody to really feel secure, supported and welcome on the pageant.
We wish to reassure all of our clients that at Obtain, the vast majority of bogs will probably be gender impartial and accessible to all. There may also be single intercourse bogs offered. Obtain Pageant has all the time been and stays for everybody.
We sincerely apologise {that a} earlier communication on this was not clear. We’re wanting ahead to seeing you at Obtain this yr.
However that wasn’t sufficient for the favored magnificence model Lush, which terminated its partnership with the pageant amid the controversy. Lush introduced final month that it might be on the pageant providing a bit of 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 pageant anymore, and Lush additionally lately partnered with some UK-based trans-advocacy teams. (For fundraising, they’re promoting this cute bathtub bomb that appears just like the transgender flag.)
See related posts under.
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 that despatched out this e mail ought to NEVER have used that wording within the e mail. https://t.co/A1rf2CXa0M
— NOAHFINNCE (@noahfinnadams) Might 28, 2025
what fucking music pageant polices gendered bogs?? loopy, unsafe, disrespectful, harmful, and a slap within the face to all of the queer and trans artists and followers who carry their creativity and innovation to the choice music house every single day @DownloadFest https://t.co/UDptNvVviD
— pinkshift (@pinkshiftmd) Might 27, 2025
And to be clear – apparently the pageant may also be offering gender impartial bogs which is nice, however to implement guidelines on what particular person can use what rest room primarily based 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 corporations 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
We stand with all members of our group and need everybody to really feel secure, supported and welcome at Obtain pic.twitter.com/TSMIhZFLJZ
— Obtain Pageant (@DownloadFest) Might 28, 2025
