The Edinburgh Council Bathroom ban.  At the Education, Children and Families Committee 2nd September 2025

The day began well.

As well as a verbal deputation made by RTiE, the ban on trans kids’ bathroom use was also opposed by deputations from Trans Kids Deserve Better, the Friends of Abbeyhill, Scottish Trans, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, LGBT Youth Scotland, BAAT Scotland Council, the REPAIR Network, and the Educational Institute of Scotland.

All submissions against the ban were well received, with plenty of  councillors, excluding the Conservatives, applause, and gallery applause too from other delegations.

SNP councillors also acknowledged correspondence from parents and carers raising unanswered questions around the practicalities of implementing toilet ban changes including policy around enforcement, communications and avoiding the risk of unintentional ‘outing’ of transgender students and for the impact on their mental health and welfare.

But in the afternoon the mood completely changed, and the ban went through, apparently on the advice of the Council legal team.  The councillors were simply required to be there to rubber stamp a deeply flawed and contentious decision that had already been made by Council officials.

This despite the fact the Supreme Court ruling said it shouldn’t remove any rights for trans people, and that the EHRC guidance was interim and not yet law.  Several councillors seemed to push on this point, suggesting the legal advice wasn’t so firm, but were just met with a brick wall.

The Liberal Democrats expressed frustration that no attempt was made to engage with committee
members on this topic prior to the start of the school year and that this runs against the spirit of the motion passed at full council earlier this year in the wake of the supreme court ruling.

The Greens noted that gender reassignment is still protected under the Equality Act 2010 and that rules limiting trans children to facilities for their ‘biological sex’ and gender neutral facilities would be unenforceable without an egregious impact on the privacy of children.  They also noted that trans children being effectively limited to only using gender neutral toilets in school risks ‘outing’ them to pupils and parents, which presents discrimination and a serious risk of harm.

The addendum that the Greens pushed through was to do with schools having regard for the human rights of any individual pupil who was affected. Basically trying to get some sort of hook that parents can go to schools and say you have to adapt what you’re doing for this particular individual because they are being harmed.

After the meeting a group of the supportive councillors spoke to two of the RTiE delegates to say how sorry they were and emphasised that all of them will push to keep this on the agenda and that all of them want to hear from people who have an opinion on this or who have been affected by this outcome.

A dark day for trans kids and a dark day for Edinburgh education.  But we have found new allies and the struggle continues.