The Equality Act 2010

This page summarises general legal information relating to the rights of transgender and/or non-binary individuals under the law in England, Scotland and Wales. This information represents our understanding of these rights at the time of publication of this information. It is not intended to give specific legal advice on which you should rely. If you require legal advice, or further details on any matter referred to, please consult an independent legal professional.

Many trans people (and their families, partners, and friends) experience discrimination.

If you are treated less favourably by an organisation because:

• you are trans
• you’re connected to someone trans
• or you’re believed to be trans

you may have been victim to transphobic discrimination.

For a more detailed explanation of transphobia, read our definition of transphobia.

Discrimination that is not allowed under the law is called unlawful discrimination.

This page explains your legal rights around unlawful discrimination and what you can do if it happens to you.

On this page, we’ll answer:

• What is the Equality Act 2010?
• What discrimination might I be protected from under the Equality Act?
• How can I tell if it might be unlawful discrimination?
• What can I do if I may have experienced unlawful discrimination?

If you’d like to read more about your rights, including how to handle accessing gendered spaces, how to protect yourself in the workplace, and your rights if the police ask to search you, read our Know Your Rights guide.

What is the Equality Act 2010?

The Equality Act 2010 is a piece of UK legislation which applies in England, Wales, and Scotland.

Northern Ireland continues to have its own equality legislation. If you’re a trans person in Northern Ireland, you have very similar protections under the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations Act (NI) 1999.

The Equality Act protects individuals from “discrimination” in a variety of situations such as:

• at work
• in education
• the provision of services and public functions
• clubs and associations
• when renting or buying a property
• and in relation to transport

Read this page for information to find out how to use these rights to protect yourself from discrimination and what you can do if you experience discrimination.

What discrimination might I be protected from under the Equality Act?

If you are treated less favourably by an employer or service provider because you are trans, this is discrimination. Whether this discrimination is unlawful will depend on a variety of factors.

There are four main forms of discrimination:

• Direct discrimination is when you are treated less favourably than others because of a protected characteristic. For example, if you lose your job when your employer finds out you’re trans, this could be found to be discriminatory.

• Indirect discrimination is putting rules or arrangements in place that apply to everyone, but that put someone with a protected characteristic at an unfair disadvantage. For example, a clinical commissioning group deciding not to fund hysterectomies for anyone without children unless they have endometriosis or cancer, could be seen to be indirect transphobic discrimination due to disproportionately impacting trans men and some non-binary people.

• Harassment is unwanted behaviour linked to a protected characteristic that violates someone’s dignity or creates a hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for them. To be transphobic discrimination, the behaviour needs to be linked to someone being trans. For example, somebody sending a trans person messages which intentionally misgender them could be seen as harassment.

• Victimisation is treating someone unfairly because they’ve complained about discrimination or harassment. For example, a trans person who had complained about transphobic discrimination and then was chosen for redundancy could claim they had been the subject of victimisation.

Examples of potential unlawful discrimination could include:

• a letting agency asking you to leave your home because they do not want to rent a property to a trans person
• a hairdresser refusing to cut in a men’s style for trans men, but doing this for cis men
• a nursery not allowing a child to attend because their parent is trans
• a police officer not recording a hate incident against you because of your gender identity
• a pub refusing to serve you specifically because you are trans
• a bank refusing to update your name without seeing a Gender Recognition Certificate, but not requiring this for someone who is cis
• a college or university not allowing medical leave for gender affirming surgery, but allowing it for other medically necessary surgery

Examples of potential unlawful discrimination at work at work could include:

• Being denied hours, promotions, or equal pay because you are trans
• Being refused training or career development because you are trans
• Being excluded from family leave, pensions, workplace benefits because you are trans
• Being denied a reference because you are trans
• Not being provided with suitable toilets or changing facilities because you are trans
• Being forced to follow a dress code based on your sex assigned at birth
• Not being permitted to update your employee records because you are trans
• Not being hired or being dismissed because you are trans
• Reports of transphobic harassment not being acted on adequately

The Equality Act also protects you from harassment in the workplace. Examples of harassment could include:

• Unwanted jokes and physical behaviour
• Name calling and verbal abuse
• Spreading rumours
• Being ignored or excluded

If you have experienced discrimination, harassment, or victimisation, it may have been unlawful – if so, you may be able to take legal action.

How can I tell if discrimination was unlawful?

The Equality Act protects people based on the specific “protected characteristics” that someone has, which include:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage or civil partnership
• Pregnancy or maternity leave
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

You may be protected from discrimination if the discrimination was motivated by one or more of these protected characteristics and the discrimination is not justified by a provision under the Equality Act.

Checking if the ‘gender reassignment’ protected characteristic applies to your situation

A trans person is protected from unlawful discrimination on the basis of being trans if they fall within the definition of “gender reassignment”, which is currently defined as a person who is

“…proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex .

The characteristic of ‘gender reassignment’ does not only apply to those who have had gender affirming surgery. For example, a trans person may be protected even if:

• they have not medically transitioned
• they do not have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC)
• they are nonbinary (their gender identity doesn’t sit comfortably with ‘man’ or ‘woman’)
• they are under the age of 18 years old

The current EHRC Code of Conduct, in relation to the Equality Act, offers the following clarification:

“2.19 Under the Act ‘gender reassignment’ is a personal process, that is, moving away from one’s birth sex to the preferred gender, rather than a medical process.”

In short, to be protected, the Equality Act requires that a trans person has only proposed to undergo gender reassignment, which may be physical (i.e. medical transition) or through changing “other attributes of sex”. 

On 25 April the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced that it would undertake a public consultation on updates made to its statutory Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations, following the Supreme Court’s judgment in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers. The consultation ran from 19 May to 30 June 2025 and the Code is expected to be officially updated later this year. In the meantime, the Code as published on 1 January 2011 remains in effect. 

Checking if the Equality Act applies to the setting the discrimination happened in

Under the Equality Act trans people are protected from unlawful discrimination across a variety of settings, including (but not limited to):

• at work
• in education
• when accessing goods and services
• when renting or buying a property
• as a member or guest of a private club

Your situation may also be covered by the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). You can take action (such as making a complaint, going to employment tribunal, or taking legal action) if you consider a public authority’s conduct is in breach of the PSED.

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) applies to all public authorities listed in “Schedule 19” of the EA 2010 including (but not limited to):

• the UK government, Scottish and Welsh governments
• local authorities
• services run by local authorities (like local leisure centres)
• NHS organisations
• most universities, schools, and colleges
• the Armed Forces
• emergency services

It also applies to anyone performing a function of a public nature for the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998.

There are slight differences in requirements under the law between different UK nations, but the principles are broadly the same. It states that public authorities in the UK must in the exercise of their functions have due regard to the need to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act
• advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who don’t
• foster or encourage good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who don’t

Anyone can ask to see the policies and procedures organisations have created to meet these requirements. You can take action (such as making a complaint, going to employment tribunal, or taking legal action) if you consider a public authority’s conduct is in breach of the PSED – advice should be sought where possible.

Public authorities are also required to create “equality impact assessments” on how fairly they are treating people, with the exact details of these requirements varying slightly between UK nations. You can read more about these requirements on this page on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website.

Situations in which discrimination may be lawful

There are exceptions to the Equality Act for specific types of services. The Equality Act 2010 uses the language “single-sex” services to refer to these specific exceptions – while this is not the language we would prefer to use, for the purpose of this section, we will use their language for clarity.

The current EHRC Statutory Code on the Equality Act states:

“13.57 If a service provider provides single- or separate sex services for women and men, or provides services differently to women and men, they should treat transsexual people according to the gender role in which they present. However, the Act does permit the service provider to provide a different service or exclude a person from the service who is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or who has undergone gender reassignment. This will only be lawful where the exclusion is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.”

“13.60 …any exception to the prohibition of discrimination must be applied as restrictively as possible and the denial of a service to a transsexual person should only occur in exceptional circumstances.”

A single sex service needs to be a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”. This means services can only have a single-sex space that excludes trans people if it is the least restrictive measure to achieve a justifiable aim.

Provided these conditions are met (which a service provider would have to illustrate), single sex services can lawfully be provided. However, services will still have to be sure not to put trans people (whether they have a GRC or not) at an unjustifiable disadvantage as a result of the segregation.  If they do, a trans person (with the ‘gender reassignment’ protected characteristic) may be able to claim unlawful discrimination, especially if someone left without access to any service because none are available or because the trans person feels uncomfortable using their “biological sex” service. Again, the service provider would need to defend their exclusionary approach as proportionate.

Read our Know Your Rights guide for information about accessing “single-sex” spaces.

What can I do if I experience discrimination?

Your options for taking action depend on who you’ve experienced discrimination from and where it took place.

This could be in your workplace, when managing property (e.g. renting, letting, buying, or selling), or it could be from a service provider, such as:

• a public service like a hospital, your local council, or the police
• your school or educational institution
• a private company like a hotel, gym, or restaurant
• a charity

If you experience discrimination at work you could:

• make a formal complaint (this is called a ‘grievance’)
• talk to your trade union rep
• make a claim via an employment tribunal
• pursue a court case or tribunal

If you experience discrimination a service provider you could:

• make a formal complaint
• seek mediation
• make a complaint to the industry ombudsman (if your formal complaint was not resolved)

If you experience discrimination when renting, letting, buying, or selling property, you could:

• make a formal complaint
• get support from your renters union
• talk to Shelter or Citizen’s Advice for help
• pursue a court case

If you experience transphobic harassment, it might also be a hate crime.

Read more about hate crimes.

Where can I read more about my rights under the Equality Act?

• ACAS: Discrimination and bullying
• Citizens Advice: What’s the public sector equality duty?
• Citizens Advice: When discrimination is allowed
• Equality and Human Rights Commission: Gender Reassignment Discrimination
• GOV.UK: Discrimination: your rights
• TUC: Equality and Discrimination
• USDAW: LGBT+ Rights at Work

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