Overview

• Marks & Spencer issued a formal apology to a mother after a transgender employee’s offer to assist a 14-year-old girl in the bra department left the teen feeling “freaked out,” and promised that a female colleague would be available on her next visit.
• The retailer emphasized that staff routinely rotate across departments and that customers may request the colleague they are most comfortable with, but it stopped short of instituting a policy barring transgender employees from women-only sections.
• Campaigners from the charity Sex Matters and public figures including J.K. Rowling have renewed calls for M&S to adopt clear protections for female privacy, with the latter urging shoppers to boycott the chain if it fails to amend its policies.
• The incident occurred weeks before the April Supreme Court ruling that “sex” in the Equality Act refers to biological sex, affirming that businesses may exclude trans women from women-only spaces under UK equality law.
• The debate underscores a national tension between inclusive staffing practices and some customers’ desire for guaranteed same-sex assistance in private retail settings.