Sadly, regardless of immediately being the primary day of Delight Month, there’s some transphobic bullshit happening within the UK proper now. Six weeks in the past, UK Supreme Courtroom dominated that below the 2010 Equality Act, an individual’s gender could also be outlined in regulation solely by the intercourse they had been assigned at beginning. The Equality And Human Rights Fee (EHRC), the nation’s unbiased physique that advises organizations on methods to adjust to the Equality Act, has since issued some disappointing steerage on how that ruling ought to be interpreted in regulation, saying that “trans girls (organic males) shouldn’t be permitted to make use of the ladies’s amenities and trans males (organic girls) shouldn’t be permitted to make use of the boys’s amenities, as this may imply that they’re now not single-sex amenities and should be open to all customers of the other intercourse.” The steerage states that trans individuals “shouldn’t be put able the place there are not any amenities for them to make use of,” however their solely actual choices are to make use of the lavatory corresponding with their intercourse assigned at beginning, or use a lockable single-stall rest room within the off-chance that one is on the market.
Tons of of UK music figures like Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Imogen Heap, Jessie Ware, Wolf Alice, and extra have since signed an open letter of solidarity to the trans neighborhood. However with Leicestershire’s rock-focused Obtain Competition developing in in a few weeks, fest organizers lately despatched an e-mail in response to a question saying that the occasion could be following the EHRC’s anti-trans rest room steerage, which has since garnered a whole lot of pushback. Consideration was delivered to the problem final week when the artist Noahfinnce, who performed the pageant final yr, shared a screenshot of that e-mail; fellow 2024 performers Pinkshift and Witch Fever additionally chimed in expressing anger in direction of Obtain over the coverage.
Noahfinnce adopted up the preliminary tweet saying that he’d been in “direct communication” with Obtain over the lavatory challenge. “They needed to clarify that they may NOT be policing the bogs in any respect and that the customer support one who despatched out this e-mail ought to NEVER have used that wording within the e-mail,” he wrote. So it feels like trans individuals will in all probability be capable of use whichever restroom they’d like at Obtain.
And the fest launched an announcement on social media:
On the coronary heart of Obtain is acceptance – we stand with all members of our neighborhood and need everybody to really feel protected, supported and welcome on the pageant.
We wish to reassure all of our clients that at Obtain, nearly all of bogs shall be gender impartial and obtainable to all. There will even be single intercourse bogs supplied. Obtain Competition has at all times been and stays for everybody.
We sincerely apologise {that a} earlier communication on this was not clear. We’re trying ahead to seeing you at Obtain this yr.
However that wasn’t sufficient for the favored magnificence model Lush, which terminated its partnership with the pageant amid the controversy. Lush introduced final month that it will be on the pageant providing a bit of rock-themed set of merchandise, cleverly named the “Wash Pit,” to make you scent good after the mosh pit. They gained’t be promoting them on the pageant anymore, and Lush additionally lately partnered with some UK-based trans-advocacy teams. (For fundraising, they’re promoting this lovable bathtub bomb that appears just like the transgender flag.)
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In direct communication with obtain about this.
They needed to clarify that they may NOT be policing the bogs in any respect and that the customer support one who despatched out this e-mail ought to NEVER have used that wording within the e-mail. https://t.co/A1rf2CXa0M
— NOAHFINNCE (@noahfinnadams) Could 28, 2025
what fucking music pageant polices gendered bogs?? loopy, unsafe, disrespectful, harmful, and a slap within the face to all of the queer and trans artists and followers who carry their creativity and innovation to the choice music house on daily basis @DownloadFest https://t.co/UDptNvVviD
— pinkshift (@pinkshiftmd) Could 27, 2025
And to be clear – apparently the pageant will even be offering gender impartial bogs which is sweet, however to implement guidelines on what individual can use what rest room based mostly on their organic intercourse over their gender identification isn’t championing inclusivity and variety https://t.co/dYCR1aAaIF
— WITCH FEVER (@WITCHFEVER) Could 27, 2025
Ref Obtain and its trans exclusion coverage….
Companion firms are pulling out.
Simply had this from Lush who had a partnership with the occasion.Thanks Lush Group for placing morals forward of income.
— STRIVE (@strivecampaign.bsky.social) Could 29, 2025 at 8:12 AM
We stand with all members of our neighborhood and need everybody to really feel protected, supported and welcome at Obtain pic.twitter.com/TSMIhZFLJZ
— Obtain Competition (@DownloadFest) Could 28, 2025
