The UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that under the Equality Act 2010, the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ are defined by biological sex rather than gender identity.
In a judgment that has far-reaching implications for the application of equality laws, the UK’s highest court decided that trans women are not included in the legal definition of “woman.”
This decision supports the view that women’s rights and spaces are protected based on biological criteria.
The ruling has been celebrated by some as a victory for women’s rights, but it also raises significant questions regarding the legal recognition of transgender individuals.
Gender-critical activists celebrated outside the court after Britain’s Supreme Court unanimously decided that the definition of a woman in equality laws refers to “a biological woman and biological sex.”
However, transgender persons expressed concern that this was a “worrying” trend. The lawsuit focused on whether the country’s Equality Act of 2010 protected trans women who hold a gender recognition certificate (GRC), which provides legal recognition of someone’s female sex, from discrimination as women.
In 2018, a group of activists in Scotland filed a challenge, claiming that those rights should only protect people who were born as women.
However, according to the Scottish government, a trans woman with a GRC should be granted the same legal protections as a woman because she is legally a woman. Despite the fact that the case is about Scottish legislation intended to enhance the proportion of women on boards, the decision made on Wednesday will have a significant impact on the UK’s increasingly contentious and divisive discussion on transgender rights.
While the opposition Conservatives hailed the decision as a “clear victory for common sense” and urged the government to revise current instructions, the UK’s ruling Labour party claimed the finding gave “clarity and confidence.”