On the 5th of October, we released our open letter to UWE regarding their updates to their trans/non-binary policies in response to pressure from the EHRC.

In the month or so since, we have had a series of meetings with both the Students’ Union and UWE themselves, along with other concerned groups at the University.

Here is what we’ve learned:

1. They're still lying.

We received further confirmation of the dates we spoke about, via seeing a paper copy of letter ourselves and the dates on it. We were told that the University had anticipated the contact from the EHRC after the supreme court ruling and had prepared the update for when they received it.

They also confirmed that they had not consulted anyone on these changes, and told us that the “ongoing engagement” mentioned in the compliance measures section was referring to the original creation of the document, and not the update. This is simply not “ongoing”.

There was no consultation or conversations with affected people until after the policy was already put in place.

We were then told that the letter from the EHRC said that if they did not change their policy by the 27th of September, then Steve West (the vice chancellor of UWE) would be arrested and the University would be given an uncapped fine.

They told us they would send us a digital copy of the letter, which we requested as this did not at all match with our understanding of the contents. 25 days later, and we have not received it, or any other communications from the University.

We have however now seen the letter, and can confirm that it does not say this whatsoever, it only asks for a timeline for change by that 17th of September date, and does not mention any charges or fines. The EHRC does not yet have this power, as their updated guidance is not law.

2. We did get some stuff wrong.

Our understanding of parts of the policy update were not accurate, we apologise for this and any unwarranted panic this may have caused amongst staff and students, however we feel that the ultimate blame lies with the University and their lack of proper communications regarding the changes and why they were made.

It should not be the responsibility of unpaid students to spend hours of time scouring through policy documents to figure out how their rights are affected by them.

That being said, we would like to correct this and quell concerns where possible.

1. Name/Gender Change Requests

The policy removed any mention of name/gender change requests, this was not because these things aren’t being done by the University anymore, but because it is being moved to a seperate document.

You will still be able to change your name/gender and students/staff will be required to respect it.

If you feel this isn’t happening, please report it via Report + Support, this can be done anonymously if you wish.

We were told that as this is not a legal matter and is instead something the University is chosing to do, it did not belong in the policy document in the first place.

This also makes it easier to be updated, but this also means it’s easier to be removed. We still have concerns about this change, but it’s not as bad as we thought.

2. The change from “Anonymous” to “Confidential” Guidance

One of the more concerning changes we found was regarding guidance that students could seek from the EDI team, going from being “anonymous” to “confidential”.

We initially believed that this was because of a change in how this was handled, however we were told that it was simply never anonymous, as there was no way of anonymously contacting the EDI team to begin with.

The rest of the letter is still accurate, and their continued lack of communication with students on these issues will only create further panic and fear.

What now?

For now, we are still maintaining our demands from our original letter. We believe the University is being misled by biased legal counsel about the situation they are in.

The EHRC guidance is not only not yet law, but has been withdrawn, and Bridget Phillipson (Minister for Women and Equalities ) has told them it is not in line with the law.

The University’s legal counsel is claiming that it hasn’t been withdrawn and has only been removed from their website, which is simply untrue.

If they are just repeating what their legal counsel is telling them regarding the EHRC letter, this would also explain the discrepancies between what they are telling us is in it and what is actually in it.

They are also refusing to publish any response to our letter, on advice from their legal counsel, out of fear of creating “further confusion”.

If you are or know a trans or non-binary student at UWE, please let them know that this policy explicitly states that staff have no right to enforce or police the usage of gendered spaces.

We have had reports of students receiving emails trying to police their use of these spaces, if you recieve something like this, or an in-person warning, please report it via Report + Support, and if you are comfortable and willing, to us as well.

It is not acceptable and can result in disciplinary action. You are not in the wrong, and you should feel safe at University.

Thank you for reading, and please share this around.

• UWE LGBTQ+ Society Committee