You may already be aware but the UK Supreme Court has ruled on the definition of a woman in UK law and it is not in our favour.
"The UK Supreme Court has unanimously decided that the definition of sex under the Equality Act 2010 refers solely to biological sex, and does not include people with a Gender Recognition Certificate."
What this means is that being assigned at birth the biological sex of female means you are legally a woman, regardless, and being assigned the biological sex of male at birth means you can never legally be a woman, regardless.
Trans people still have protection under the law as "gender reassignment or presumed gender reassignment" remains a protected characteristic of the Equality Act 2010. However, trans women do not have the right to sex-based protections anymore, even if that was the reason for discrimination, and can be legally excluded from women-only spaces.
Obviously this is horrifying and disheartening, but it's important that you have all the facts. For anyone who isn't aware, here's a short timeline so yk what happened and who to blame
2018, Scottish Government passed the Gender Representation on Public Boards Act, which happened to include those with Gender Recognition Certificates/ living as women and undergoing transition as women for this purpose
2023, Scottish Government passed the Gender Recognition Reform as an amendment to the Gender Recognition Act. This would have made it easier to legally change gender
January 2023 Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Government used powers given by Section 35 of the Scotland Act (powers that allow UK government to veto Scottish legislation despite their devolved power) to block this.
Despite that particular reform being blocked, the Scottish definition of womanhood remained and this freaked out the group For Women Scotland, who got a case appealed all the way to the Supreme Court to challenge the Scottish Government. Case began November 2023
The group For Women Scotland is significantly funded by J.K. Rowling, who's money will have been a big help to them in their legal fees for this case. There will be other prominent donors
The case is called to interpret the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act, and is against the Scottish Ministers. They are being represented by their lawyers rather than appearing in court and have mostly not been commenting.
The Labour Government has been called on for comment and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson says the government supports maintaining the sanctity on single sex spaces, and they appreciate clarity in the law
That brings us back up to date. Ask if you have further questions or worries, and please stay strong
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