UK Court Decides Who Is a Woman

The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equality laws, a decision welcomed by gender-critical campaigners and criticized by trans rights advocates, the BBC wrote. 

The legal dispute began in 2018 over a Scottish law aimed at ensuring gender balance on public boards. The advocacy group, For Women Scotland, challenged the inclusion of transgender people for filling quotas reserved for women.  

Instead, For Women Scotland said that sex-based laws should only concern people who are born female.  

The Scottish government said, however, that transgender people with gender recognition certificates (GRCs) should be protected by the same sex-based law as biological women. But the UK court sided with the campaign group, saying that the legal definition of a woman in the 2010 Equality Act, which applies across the UK, does not cover transgender women with GRCs, according to the Guardian. 

Judge Lord Hodge insisted that the ruling does not mean that one side won and the other lost, as the law still protects transgender people against discrimination regarding several criteria, including “sex” and “gender reassignment.” 

The ruling centered on deciding the meaning of the word “sex” in the law, as the 2004 Gender Recognition Act recognized the “certificated” sex. The Scottish government said the 2004 law had decided this matter already, adding that GRCs amount to a change of sex “for all purposes.” 

For Women Scotland argued that sex is an “immutable biological state.” 

While many gender critics consider this a victory that will protect women’s rights, transgender rights activists expressed serious concern over how the ruling will impact transgender people, saying they now risk being discriminated against in their reassigned sex and excluded from both men’s and women’s spaces and services, like hospital wards and prisons.