Can transsexual women now be denied access to a women’s refuge?
The Act has not changed the law on this. People who provide separate- and single-sex services, such as refuges, can only provide a different service or refuse a service to transsexual service user under exceptional circumstances and these circumstances depend on the facts of the case. Discrimination against transsexual people is not acceptable and therefore the bar for a service provider to discriminate in this way is very high – the use of the exception has to be exceptional. Decisions made cannot be based on personal prejudice but on evidence of detriment to others, and even then the provider will need to show that a less discriminatory way to achieve the objective was not available.
