Transgender women are not legally women, the Supreme Court has declared in a landmark ruling. In an unanimous decision, the five justices ruled that “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act refer to biological sex, not acquired gender. The Telegraph has more.
Handing down judgment, Lord Hodge said it was the court’s unanimous view that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act refer to biological sex, not acquired gender.
Gender-critical campaigners hailed Wednesday’s ruling as a victory for common sense, claiming gender “self-ID is dead”.
It follows a years-long legal battle between campaign group For Women Scotland and the Scottish Government over the definition of a woman.
Lord Hodge told the court: “The unanimous decision of this court is that the definition of the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.
“But we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.”
In its 88-page ruling, the court added that the “concept of sex is binary” under the Equality Act 2010.
For Women Scotland cracked open a bottle of champagne outside the Supreme Court and broke into song to celebrate the ruling.
Susan Smith, the group’s co-director who was also handed a bouquet of flowers, said the group had been given no steer about which way the decision would go and was “really worried” it may go the other way.
In a statement outside court, she said: “Today, the judges have said what we always believed to be the case, women are protected by their biological sex – that sex is real.
“We are enormously grateful to the Supreme Court for this ruling.”
Speaking afterwards, she said: “Dogs and toddlers know what sex is. It’s one of the most concrete things in nature.
“Sex can’t be changed but the law had the capacity to make a mess of anything. We’re just really glad common sense prevailed.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, its Chairman, said: “Today the Supreme Court ruled that a gender recognition certificate does not change a person’s legal sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.
“We are pleased that this judgment addresses several of the difficulties we highlighted in our submission to the court, including the challenges faced by those seeking to maintain single-sex spaces, and the rights of same-sex attracted persons to form associations.
“As we did not receive the judgment in advance, we will make a more detailed statement once we have had time to consider its implications in full.”
Kemi Badenoch has said “you cannot change your biological sex” as she reacted to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Saying ‘trans women are women’ was never true in fact, and now isn’t true in law either,” the leader of the Conservative Party said.
“This is a victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious. Women are women and men are men: you cannot change your biological sex.
“The era of Keir Starmer telling us women can have penises has come to an end. Well done to For Women Scotland!”
Read More: Trans Women Are Not Legally Women, Supreme Court Rules
