A rape charity has created a new service which will exclude transgender people to settle a legal challenge.
In 2022, a woman launched a legal claim against the Survivors Network, a rape crisis support centre based in Brighton.
Survivors Network, which has been trans-inclusive since it began in 1990, announced that they have “reached a mutual agreement that allows us to expand our service offer” in a statement on their website.
Online the woman said she sought help from the charity after coming into contact with a man who had raped her, but felt “shaken and upset” when a trans woman joined her group in September 2021.
The charity, which provides support for survivors of sexual violence in Sussex, will now run a new group for biological women who live as women, alongside its existing meetings that include trans and non-binary people.
Earlier this year, a UK Supreme Court ruled single-sex services should be reserved for people of the same biological sex.
The co-chairs of the Survivors Network, Beca Davison and Sara Jones, said they are “proud” to be creating this new provision which will be open to biological women living as women, and biological women who do not have a gender identity.
“We understand for some biological women such a space is imperative for their healing and acknowledges their trauma,” they said.
As part of her discrimination-based legal challenge, the woman has raised over £100,000 online to help cover her legal costs.
In the description on that page, she wrote: “Some female survivors have a trauma response to males which they cannot help. No amount of ‘education’ from trans rights activists can change this trauma response.”
The new service will run as a 12-month pilot scheme, funded by the Office of Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner.
On their website, the charity added: “We continue to offer support to trans, non-binary and/or intersex people and our existing groups remain unchanged.”
