When UoB stay silent, we take action: Stand with us for trans rights on campus

Save the Date: Day of Action for Trans Rights – Solidarity Picnic and Crafternoon

Wednesday 16th July 2025

While staff and students at the University are stepping up and standing together with the trans* community, management continue to choose silence over support. Our network has grown, we’ve hosted speakers, held solidarity picnics and we continue to demand protections for trans* staff and students.

We invite you now to join us, to be visible, to show the strength of our community and say that silence is not good enough.

• Next events: Stand with the community, save the date
• Quick recap: Trans rights key events
• Update: Where things stand on trans* rights at UoB
• Support us: How you can get involved

Stand with the community, join our next events

In the face of continued silence from University management, your presence makes a difference. Join us, and show that our community won’t be ignored.

Solidarity Picnic, Wed 16th July, 12:30pm – 1:30pm

Where: At the Green Heart on the “amphitheatre” section, by North gate (weather dependent)

What to expect: Bring your own lunch along, meet colleagues from across the university for an afternoon of positive action and solidarity.

Crafternoon, Wed 16th July, 4pm – 7pm

Where: University House (the Business School) UG05 and UG06

What to expect:

Food will be provided. You can bring your own craft along or: 

• Make some badges
• Contribute to our community trans pride flag by adding a piece of fabric or writing a message on it
• Paint a pinecone!

Sign up: Please sign up for the Crafternoon (for numbers) and let us know if you would like a samosa to keep you going!

What we’ve achieved: A reminder of our work so far

Reminder of key events

April 2025: An anti-trans group won a case at the UK Supreme Court. The court ruled that the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ should be exclusively defined in line with what they called “biological sex” for the purposes of a key piece of anti-discrimination law called the Equality Act 2010. The ruling is being challenged by several groups.

A week later: The EHRC released a brief “Interim Statement” which went much further than the ruling. It instructed businesses to enact overreaching anti-trans policies, like banning trans people from using men or women’s bathrooms.

25th June 2025: Over 900 people met with their MPs at Parliament to protest the rollback of trans rights in the UK.

Now: The EHRC ran a consultation on proposed updates to the ‘Code of Practice’, the document that provides guidance on how service providers and employers should interpret the Equalities Act 2010. The updates describe in detail how transgender people should be shamed, humiliated and segregated out of public spaces.

The consultation closed on Monday 30th June and received 51,599 responses!

(Source: Fatt Projects EHRC Consultation Guidance)

Where things stand on trans* rights at UoB

Since we last gathered on Green Heart to show our solidarity with UoB’s trans* community, the fight for trans rights in the UK and on campus has continued. Here is our update for you on actions taken by unions, staff networks and the University’s response.

UoB Unison and BUCU have continued campaigning

• We’ve continued to raise protections for trans* staff and students at meetings with Equalities leads and HR representatives.
• We Hosted Dr Kay Crosby, from University of Newcastle, to speak on trans rights and workplace organising.
• We also ran an online social for completing the EHRC Consultation.

UoB Staff Networks have also stepped up

• The networks have been raising concerns on behalf of trans* staff and students at Network Co-chairs meetings.
• There is now a community-led trans, non-binary and gender diverse coffee and chat network for staff who self-identify as trans*. They meet either online or in-person. If you would like to join the network, email the Rainbow Network: lgbtq@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

The University’s response: Image first, flawed arguments

The response from management has been, sadly, minimal and limited in scope and impact. The University still has not released a statement clearly and unambiguously affirming protections for trans* rights on campus, as other institutions have.

• PR over people, again.
  As we have seen before with student-staff campaigns for Palestine, Support Staff terms and conditions, and anti-casualisation, management remains committed to prioritising the University’s “public image” over protecting staff wellbeing. Regardless of what individual managers think or believe, University management are too scared of a media backlash to do anything other than remain silent.
• Using “debate” to deny dignity
  In meetings with HR, management continuously references “freedom of speech” and so-called tensions between transgender rights and women’s rights as reasons for their lack of open support. Both of these excuses are fundamentally flawed. Dictating where an entire minoritised group can go to the toilet does not uphold freedom of speech, and the rollback of trans rights will do immeasurable harm to women’s rights in the long run.

Support us: How you can get involved

Make your voice heard!

The University is currently conducting Listening Events on the Supreme Court ruling and EHRC’s interim guidance. Whilst we don’t condone the University’s lack of support overall, we encourage members to engage with these events, or submit feedback using the form provided.

Our demands:

• Better trans inclusion training for staff and managers.
• A clear, unambiguous statement affirming the rights of trans* staff and students to work and study safely on campus.
• That University management addresses the actual issues affecting women at UoB, such as the gender pay gap, hiring inequalities, poor communication of pregnancy and maternity protections and policy, and workplace sexual harassment.

Please consider supporting trans rights by doing one of the following:

• Email your MP and ask them to defend the rights of trans people.
• Send a letter about anti-trans behaviour of the incoming EHRC Chair.
• If you are a cisgender woman, consider signing this petition, Not in Our Name.
• Check out the work the Good Law Project are doing to challenge both the Supreme Court and the EHRC.