The U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Wednesday that transgender women do not fall under the legal category of “women” in their equality legislation, adding to the mounting rollback of protections for trans people across the globe.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The court’s decision clarified that the term “sex” in Britain’s 2010 Equality Act only applies to “biological women” or “biological sex.” Such exclusion of transgender women from the Equality Act is set to impact transgender women’s access to women-only services and spaces, including charities, sports, hospitals, and more.
The Scottish government had argued last November that transgender people with a gender recognition certificate (GRC)—a document that allows a transgender person to have their gender legally recognized in the U.K.—are protected under the law. (A GRC, for instance, allows people to update their birth certificate or update their marriage or civil partnership certificate.)
Lord Patrick Hodge, Deputy President of the Supreme Court in the U.K., said that the ruling was not a victory for either side, as the law still protects transgender people against discrimination and harassment due to gender reassignment. Expanding the definition of “sex” in the Act to include transgender people, however, would give them “greater rights,” Hodge said while mentioning pregnancy and maternity leave.
The anti-trans J.K. Rowling-backed group For Women Scotland—which spearheaded the lengthy legal battle and believes there are only two sexes—called the decision a “victory for women’s rights.”
“There’s absolute clarity in law regarding what a woman is,” Trina Budge, director of For Women Scotland told Sky News following the ruling. “When we see a women-only space it means exactly that. Just women, no men, not even if they have a gender recognition certificate.”
Trans activists say the court’s decision emphasizes the broader scope of the anti-trans movement. “By ruling that the U.K.’s Equality Act’s definition of woman excludes trans women, the decision will likely boost American efforts to narrow legal concepts of gender—both legally and through regulations,” said Imara Jones, CEO of TransLash Media, a news organization whose coverage focuses on transgender people. “No doubt we will see the U.K. ruling cited in court cases and state legislatures in the United States and ultimately before the Supreme Court.”
The targeting of trans rights is already acutely felt across the Atlantic, where state legislators in the U.S. have introduced a record number of anti-trans bills over the past few years. President Donald Trump doubled down on such efforts on his first day in office this year, issuing an Executive Order saying that the federal government would only recognize two sexes, which must align with their sex assigned at birth. The move barred transgender people from updating their gender marker on federal documents such as a passport.
The Administration has also limited transgender women from playing on sports teams that align with their gender and attempted to bar gender-affirming-care for minors, the latter of which is at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling expected to come down this summer.
At least one British politician has called on the U.K. to similarly follow suit regarding some of those policies. “Now – let’s keep men out of women’s sports and spaces,” wrote Parliament Member Rupert Lowe on X Wednesday. “We must prioritise safety over inclusivity, dignity over wokery, reality over ideology.” In May 2024, the National Health Service (NHS) of England decided that puberty blocker medications will no longer be available for trans youth because they claimed there was a lack of evidence in support of such medication. By contrast, every major medical association in the U.S. has vouched for the benefits of gender-affirming-care.
Amnesty International U.K. called Wednesday’s decision “disappointing.”
But despite parallels between both the U.S. and the U.K., there are existing distinctions between each regarding legal protections for the trans community. As Amnesty International U.K. noted, trans people still have protections in the U.K. under the “gender reassignment” category of the Equality Act.
Meanwhile, “the United States Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County—and lower courts have repeatedly affirmed—that our federal sex discrimination laws extend to transgender people,” Laurel Powell, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign told TIME in an emailed statement. “Today’s ruling does not change the fact that trans women are women, that trans men are men, and that they deserve to be recognized and protected for who they are. That was true yesterday, and it will be true tomorrow.”
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