On Apr. 16, the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled against transgender rights, stating that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 are defined according to a person’s “biological sex.”
The case involved the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 bill passed by the Scottish Parliament that mandated equal gender representation on public sector boards. This bill allowed trans women with a gender recognition certificate to be included in the women’s quotas specified by the law. As the state recognized them as women, they were provided access to services and protections designated for all women. However, the anti-trans group For Women Scotland disagreed and contested the decision.
The ruling also makes it so that trans men, who by law are now technically women, can be barred from certain spaces if they present masculine features.
“This [exclusion] might be considered proportionate where reasonable objection is taken to their presence, for example, because the gender reassignment process has given them a masculine appearance or attributes to which reasonable objection might be taken in the context of the women-only service being provided.”
Thousands of protestors took to the streets; in London, approximately 20,000 people marched in objection to the ruling.
