Six people were arrested by police after occupying the balcony above the entrance to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) offices in Glasgow in a protest for trans rights.
The demonstrators, members of action group Trans Kids Deserve Better which last year occupied the Department for Education and NHS offices, staged the protest on Monday morning (26 May) at the EHRC building in West George Street.
Members of the group scaled the building and held up a banner which read: “End segregation, Trans Liberation!”
Around 30 minutes into the protest, two police cars and a van arrived outside the building with multiple officers in tow. Video footage taken at the scene showed police subsequently accessing balcony via upstairs windows and removing the protesters at around 12pm.
In a different clip, supporters of the protesters can be heard chanting “let them go” as they attempted to prevent a police van – which was carrying the protesters – from leaving the street. The footage shows people standing in front of the vehicle and one person getting underneath it.
The action comes after the UK Supreme Court ruled in April that the legal definition of ‘sex’ in the 2010 Equality Act refers to ‘biology’ and excludes trans people.
Immediately following the court decision, the EHRC – the UK’s equality watchdog – issued controversial interim guidance which called for access to single-sex spaces to be based on biology, whereby a trans woman must not be allowed to use a female toilet and a trans man cannot enter a male one. The guidance added that in “some circumstances” trans women should also be banned from the men’s facilities, and trans men from women’s.
In a press release about the action shared on the Trans Kids Deserve Better website, one activist who took part in the demonstration said: “It is disappointing that we have to undertake an action such as this to be listened to, but as long as we are ignored and oppressed, we we’ll keep fighting.”
Another said: “I will not have a court room or any government define my gender identity or the bathroom I use! We should be free to study for exams but we can’t do that because we’re too busy FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES! We deserve a life, so give us one!”
Speaking to Socialist Worker, one protester named Moat, who across the road supporting the demonstration, described how police arrived and sought to cordon off the building.
“They then went inside and violently dragged the protesters who were occupying the offices from the balcony. After they threw the protesters in the van, another two people tried to intervene.
“One person tried to get under the van where those arrested were being detained. To stop them taking them away. It was so brutal. A girl beside me got punched in the chest and then pushed on to her face.”
Another protester, named James, said to the outlet that he believed the police acted “shamefully” and called out the fact a far-right protest took place in the city over the weekend.
“When we showed police a picture of someone caught on camera doing a Nazi salute, the policeman’s reply was, ‘I don’t have my glasses with me’,” he said. “It’s shocking.”
In a statement following the incident, Police Scotland said: “Five people – two aged 32 and 18 as well as three aged 17-years-old – have been arrested following a protest in West George Street on Monday, 26 May 2025.
“All will be subject of reports to the Procurator Fiscal.
“A sixth person, a 25-year-old man, has also been arrested and charged in connection with an alleged assault.
“He remains in police custody and is due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Tuesday, 27 May 2025. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.
“There were no reports of any injuries at the incident which has now concluded.
“All of the roads affected are now open.”
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