Writing

Notes & long reads

Longer-form thinking on inclusion, belonging and the cultural forces shaping how we work — published on Substack.

20 June 2026

Whose Harm Counts

The EHRC says its Code is even‑handed. Read what it does, not what it says, and the balance tips one way — and the most uncomfortable evidence is sitting in the Government’s own pa…

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19 June 2026

A Regulator That Won’t Regulate

The most important word in the Code’s 300 pages is “proportionate.” It is also the one the EHRC would not define — and that refusal hands the hardest decisions, and the legal risk.…

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18 June 2026

The Door Marked Exit

The Code’s answer to everyone it excludes is “alternative provision.” Go looking for it, and you find a door painted on a wall. Part three of The Dignity Gap.…

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17 June 2026

Common Sense and the Return of the Stereotype

The EHRC insists it is not asking anyone to judge sex by appearance. Its own Code says otherwise — and the test driving it was never in the Supreme Court’s judgment at all. Part tw…

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16 June 2026

An Iceberg and a Witch Hunt

Britain’s equality regulator went before a Commons committee to defend its new trans guidance. What unfolded was a reckoning — and the hardest questions came from inside the govern…

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8 June 2026

What Should Transgender People Expect as a Minimum Standard of Dignity and Respect?

A clear, practical guide to the baseline protections for trans people under the Equality Act 2010 — and why dignity, privacy, and respect are not optional extras.…

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6 June 2026

The EHRC Could Have Chosen Dignity

What a less harsh Code of Practice could have said after *For Women Scotland* — while still accepting that “sex” means biological sex under the Equality Act 2010…

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5 June 2026

Three Doors, One Paradox: What “Dignity and Respect” Really Means After For Women Scotland

What three doors reveal about dignity, recognition, and the quiet shift from equal access to conditional inclusion…

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30 May 2026

Compliance Is Not a Licence for Cruelty

Trans people remain protected under the Equality Act. Service providers must not use uncertainty, public pressure or single-sex service rules as cover for humiliation, exclusion or…

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22 May 2026

The Toilet Door Is Not a Border Check

The uncomfortable reality behind the EHRC Code: what organisations can write in policy is not always what they can operate with dignity…

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21 May 2026

EHRC "Draft" Code of Practice 2026: Clarity, Caution and the Reality for Trans People

What the amended EHRC "draft" Code means for service providers, trans people, and the difficult work of applying clarity without cruelty…

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19 May 2026

When Pride becomes contested, organisational values either hold or fold

Pride 2026 is not just about flags, statements or campaigns. It is about whether organisations keep their promises when the pressure arrives.…

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16 April 2026

This Is Not Clarity. It Is Compulsion Dressed Up as Compliance.

A year on from For Women Scotland, employers are being offered legal neatness at the expense of human dignity…

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31 March 2026

TDOV: When Visibility Stops Feeling Safe

When visibility brings risk instead of safety, holding the rope matters more than ever…

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30 March 2026

The Equality Act Is Not Symmetrical — And That Is Exactly What People Keep Getting Wrong

Why “if you let a trans woman in, you let all men in” is not legal clarity but a category error…

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25 March 2026

Did Girlguiding Really Have No Choice?

Law, language, and the decision to exclude trans girls…

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5 January 2026

Exclusion Is Not Inevitable. Silence Is a Choice.

What the data already shows — and why staying silent is no longer neutral…

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18 November 2025

Psychological Safety: The Lesson That Shifted How I See Leadership and Belonging

By Joanne Lockwood (she/her) FIEDP FRSA FPSA - Reflections on what truly makes people feel safe, seen, and able to show up fully.…

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3 October 2025

Inclusion isn't Passive, it's Grabbing the Rope and Refusing to Let Go

Leading with Conscious Inclusion in a World in Flux…

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29 September 2025

Bastards or Brilliant? Our National Pastime

The great national game of outrage: brilliant if it’s mine, bastards if it’s yours.…

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15 September 2025

Not My Enemy: Why We Need Better Leaders, Not Bigger Labels

Rebuilding leadership as the engine of belonging, performance, and trust…

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20 August 2025

The Cost of Compliance: When Policy Becomes Violence

How misapplied guidance is stripping dignity from trans lives — and what we must do next…

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9 August 2025

Holding the Rope: The Constructive Trouble Manifesto for Transgender Advocacy in Today’s UK

Why holding the rope for trans rights is exhausting, essential, and something we can’t do alone…

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7 August 2025

The Height of Misinformation: How a Bra Fitting Became a Culture War

How one routine customer interaction became weaponised — and what it teaches us about countering fear with strategy, not silence.…

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6 August 2025

When Belief Crosses the Line: Kathleen Stock, Grainger V, and the Legal Limits of Exclusion

Thanks to a sharp legal commentary from Alice Appleby, we now have a clearer view of how gender critical belief may have just undone itself in court.…

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16 July 2025

The Room I Live In: Why I’m Reclaiming the Word “Transsexual”

By Joanne Lockwood (she/her)…

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9 July 2025

Unthinkable to Unwelcome: The Overton Window and the Transgender Conversation in the UK

By Joanne Lockwood FRSA FIEDP FPSA…

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11 June 2025

The Echo of Silence

What the media’s framing of trans people today tells us about the mistakes we didn’t learn from Section 28e Echo of Silence…

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9 June 2025

On the Left Side of Belonging: Three Intersections That Might Not Be Coincidence

What does it mean to live at the intersection of left-handedness, trans identity, and neurodivergence?…

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31 May 2025

When the Law Stops Listening: How Anti-Trans Ideology Hijacked “Common Sense”

The Supreme Court ruling was never just about definitions. It’s become a licence for exclusion—and the silence from those in power is deafening.…

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15 May 2025

A Travesty of Justice: Unpicking the Supreme Court’s Gender Ruling

Why the Supreme Court’s definition of ‘sex’ fails the test of justice and lived reality…

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12 May 2025

From Citizen to Stranger - over breakfast!

A Trans Woman’s Journey Through Belonging and Betrayal…

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9 May 2025

Toilet Panic and Misinformation: The Cost of Fear Over Facts

When public debate is fuelled more by fiction than fact, we all pay the price — socially, economically, and morally.…

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8 May 2025

Clarity or Control? A Trans Woman’s Response to the Latest Digital ID Panic

This Isn’t Clarity—It’s a Demand for Control…

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6 May 2025

What Have We Learned, Three Weeks On?

Reflections on the Supreme Court Ruling on ‘Biological Sex’ and the Equality Act 2010…

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5 May 2025

The Unexpected Art of Not-Outing… and Still Causing Confusion!

A story of family, identity, and the wonderfully unpredictable path to belonging…

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29 April 2025

The Supreme Court Has Betrayed Equality — Not Protected It

How Britain’s “sex-based rights” ruling strips dignity from all of us, not just trans people.…

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28 April 2025

You Can’t Flush Away Our Humanity

The Deep Damage Behind Forcing Trans People Out of Public Spaces…

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