Why are the police allowing trans officers to strip-search women?

What is the British Transport Police playing at? Biologically male officers identifying as female will be allowed to intimately search women so long as they have a gender recognition certificate (GRC). The guidance, which was revealed by the Daily Telegraph, shows that the police aren’t quick to learn lessons when it comes to resolving the question of who should, and shouldn’t, be allowed to search female suspects.

The trouble is that, while a GRC allows trans people to have their ‘acquired gender’ legally recognised in the UK, it remains the case that a person cannot change their biological sex. A GRC is a document issued to make things easier for trans people. It doesn’t actually change a person’s sex. And so, whatever a piece of paper might say, a woman being strip-searched by a male officer is unlikely to find it less traumatising because the officer might have ‘acquired’ the legal status of a woman.