17. The Equality Act's pronouns recognise trans men and women

 

Basically, if your name is Nicholas, but you ask to be called Nick, if a person deliberately goes on calling you Nicholas, then they are being a dick. It is a simple politeness, if a trans woman has a new female name, to address her that way, and use pronouns like 'she' and 'her'.

That's exactly what the Equality Act (and the Explanatory Notes the legislators drafted to go with it) does. The legislators acknowledge that people can change their sex. And if they have, then clearly appropriate pronouns apply. So it deploys pronouns 'she' and 'her' when referring to trans women, and 'he' and 'his' in reference to trans men. It's in the text and literally what the documents say.

This is a pretty clear indication of the true context and views of those who drafted and passed the Act, and is in line with the law that recognised trans women as women since 2004 (which still exists) - a law which the Supreme Court's retrospective revision renders incongruent (which was congruent at the time). Apart from which… affording people the names and pronouns they request is simple decency, good manners, compassion and kindness.