The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of “woman” does not include so-called “transgender women,” declaring that the definition is based on biology, not what a person claims to be.
This ruling came in a case about whether a male who identifies as a woman and has a “gender recognition certificate” is protected from discrimination as a woman under the U.K.’s 2010 Equality Act.
The British Supreme Court’s ruling states that interpreting sex as what is written on a person’s “gender recognition certificate” would be “incoherent.”
“The terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex,” stated Lord Patrick Hodge, one of the court’s senior judges. “The provisions relating to sex discrimination can only be interpreted as referring to biological sex.”
However, the five judges didn’t go as far as many would like — as they still affirmed that they were not ruling broadly as to whether men who identify as women are actually women, claiming that this issue was beyond the role of the court. Hodge specifically noted that the ruling should not be seen as “a triumph for one or more groups in our society at the expense of another – it is not.”
Regardless, critics of gender ideology celebrated the ruling as a massive victory — as the U.K. has been one of the most authoritarian countries when it comes to the issue of gender ideology, arresting people for stating biological reality and forcing women and girls to change in the same locker rooms and use the same bathrooms with “transgender” people, some of whom end up being predators. The U.K. has also been at the forefront of pushing transgender procedures on minors.
A group called “For Women Scotland” celebrated the court’s ruling, tearing up and hugging each other inside the courtroom before exiting the building and cracking open a bottle of champagne.
The group “Sex Matters” also celebrated the ruling in a statement, writing: “The court has given the right answer: the protected characteristic of sex – male and female – refers to reality, not paperwork.”
The group “LGB Alliance,” which presented arguments in the case, declared the ruling to be a “watershed for women.”
The U.K. government responded to the ruling by declaring that it supports “single-sex spaces.”
“This ruling brings clarity and confidence, for women and service providers such as hospitals, refuges, and sports clubs,” a British government spokesperson said. “Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by this Government.”
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