Former councillor Ann Sinnott | Photo: Facebook
A Labour councillor has quit her post over a policy allowing trans women to use women’s bathrooms facilities.
Ann Sinnott, who served on Cambridge council in England, stood down from her post yesterday.
Sinnott, who represented Petersfield, worked for the council for four years.
‘Dereliction of the law’
The policy Sinnott was responding to applies only to council property.
It states that ‘transgender people will not be excluded from gender-appropriate sex/single-sex segregated facilities.’
Sinnott claims the rule treats women with contempt and is in ‘dereliction of the law’, according to The Times.
She furthermore added that policies in which single-sex facilities are ‘abolished at a stroke’ undermine women’s rights and are in breach of the Equalities Act.
The Equality Act 2010 protects trans people’s right to use their bathroom of choice.
‘Female-only facilities are needed by women as a generality’
‘Cambridge city council knowingly stands in dereliction of the law,’ Sinnott said in a letter to council chief executive Antoinette Jackson, according to the report.
She furthermore added: ‘I do not want to be a member of a council that fails to recognise that female-only facilities are needed by women as a generality.’
She also said: ‘Nor do I wish to be associated with a council that effectively treated Cambridge women with contempt, while it insidiously dismantled their rights.’
The policy was put forward by trans Liberal Democrat councillor Sarah Brown.
Brown is the first trans person to be elected as a politician in the UK. She was Cambridge City Councillor for Petersfield ward from 2010 to 2014.
‘Pro natal-female rights’
Meanwhile, according to CambridgeshireLive, Sinnott has said she is not ‘anti-trans’ and that her resignation is ‘pro natal-female rights.’
The publication furthermore reports of Sinnott’s out of office email.
They say it reads: ‘Regretfully, I resigned on Mon 30 July because the Council’s Equality Policy – by which female-only services in Cambridge Council owned facilities were abolished – is in breach of the Equality Act 2010.’
Gay Star News has approached Cambridgeshire County Council and also Sinnott and Brown for comment.
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