If in this position, the answer is often quite easy; think about how the college or a member would react if instead of a trans person, the words Black, or Muslim, or Jewish were inserted. It is then possible to discern what should be done. Thus if a student would be expelled for similar but racist abuse, then the student should be expelled for transphobic abuse.
Vocational Training Paradoxically, in the 1996 decision of P v S & Cornwall County68, the European Court of Justice held that Articles 2(1) and 5(1) of Council Directive 76/207/EEC must be interpreted as precluding the dismissal of a transsexual on the grounds of gender reassignment. Effectively this barred direct discrimination in all employment and with regard to any employment benefit. This included matters related to vocational training.
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In this case, the government has used the SDALR 2008 to remove the direct discrimination protection in Vocational Training for those intending to undergo, undergoing or having undergone gender reassignment. Vocational training has been very important to trans people, often giving them a lift back into work and education after losing their schooling to bullying, their job to discrimination and their home and family to distress. In relation to discrimination in vocational training, the SDALR attempts to ensure that it is lawful. Thus people without a gender recognition certificate may be barred from a vocational training course. However, there seems to be no reason why, under the rules of law, this protection should not be provided; it benefits no one except those people who wish to bar trans people from their courses. A masculine looking trans Woman who has transitioned to living permanently in her preferred gender role and is undergoing treatment with the intention of surgical reassignment, but who does not have a gender recognition certificate, and is therefore still legally male, wishes to register for a ‘Women Only’ course in Women’s Beauty Therapy. Part of the Final Assessment includes a period of providing beauty treatments to a member of the public during which there will be treatment done to undressed women. Prior to her admittance, there is extensive discussion with the usual volunteers for this treatment. They say they do would not wish to be treated by the trans woman. As a consequence, and regardless of your misgivings, it seems you are in a position to tell her she could not complete the course anyway. POOR PRACTICE You tell the trans woman it is a ‘Women Only’ course, and you are refusing access on those grounds. BEST PRACTICE You arrange for the trans woman to ask one of her women friends, including a trans woman if that is easier, to volunteer for the beauty treatment so that she can complete the course.
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P v S and Cornwall County Council ECJ [1996] IRLR 347