Unfortunately, despite today being the first day of Pride Month, there's some transphobic bullshit going on in the UK right now. Six weeks ago, UK Supreme Court ruled that under the 2010 Equality Act, a person's gender may be defined in law only by the sex they were assigned at birth. The Equality And Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the country's independent body that advises organizations on how to comply with the Equality Act, has since issued some disappointing guidance on how that ruling should be interpreted in law, saying that "trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities and trans men (biological women) should not be permitted to use the men’s facilities, as this will mean that they are no longer single-sex facilities and must be open to all users of the opposite sex." The guidance states that trans people "should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use," but their only real options are to use the bathroom corresponding with their sex assigned at birth, or use a lockable single-stall bathroom in the off-chance that one is available.
Hundreds of UK music figures like Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Imogen Heap, Jessie Ware, Wolf Alice, and more have since signed an open letter of solidarity to the trans community. But with Leicestershire's rock-focused Download Festival coming up in in a couple of weeks, fest organizers recently sent an email in response to a query saying that the event would be following the EHRC's anti-trans bathroom guidance, which has since garnered a lot of pushback. Attention was brought to the issue last week when the artist Noahfinnce, who played the festival last year, shared a screenshot of that email; fellow 2024 performers Pinkshift and Witch Fever also chimed in expressing anger towards Download over the policy.
Noahfinnce followed up the initial tweet saying that he'd been in "direct communication" with Download over the bathroom issue. "They wanted to make clear that they will NOT be policing the bathrooms at all and that the customer service person who sent out this email should NEVER have used that wording in the email," he wrote. So it sounds like trans people will probably be able to use whichever restroom they'd like at Download.
And the fest released a statement on social media:
At the heart of Download is acceptance - we stand with all members of our community and want everyone to feel safe, supported and welcome at the festival.
We want to reassure all of our customers that at Download, the majority of toilets will be gender neutral and available to all. There will also be single sex toilets provided. Download Festival has always been and remains for everyone.
We sincerely apologise that a previous communication on this was not clear. We are looking forward to seeing you at Download this year.
But that wasn't enough for the popular beauty brand Lush, which terminated its partnership with the festival amid the controversy. Lush announced last month that it would be at the festival offering a little rock-themed set of products, cleverly named the "Wash Pit," to make you smell good after the mosh pit. They won't be selling them at the festival anymore, and Lush also recently partnered with some UK-based trans-advocacy groups. (For fundraising, they're selling this adorable bath bomb that looks like the transgender flag.)
See relevant posts below.
what fucking music festival polices gendered bathrooms?? crazy, unsafe, disrespectful, dangerous, and a slap in the face to all the queer and trans artists and fans who bring their creativity and innovation to the alternative music space every day @DownloadFest https://t.co/UDptNvVviD
— pinkshift (@pinkshiftmd) May 27, 2025
And to be clear - apparently the festival will also be providing gender neutral toilets which is good, but to enforce rules on what person can use what toilet based on their biological sex over their gender identity is not championing inclusivity and diversity https://t.co/dYCR1aAaIF
— WITCH FEVER (@WITCHFEVER) May 27, 2025
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKMu96usJIN/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
Ref Download and its trans exclusion policy….
Partner companies are pulling out.
Just had this from Lush who had a partnership with the event.Thank you Lush Team for putting morals ahead of profits.
— STRIVE (@strivecampaign.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 8:12 AM
We stand with all members of our community and want everyone to feel safe, supported and welcome at Download pic.twitter.com/TSMIhZFLJZ
— Download Festival (@DownloadFest) May 28, 2025
