UK supreme court to rule on whether legal definition of a woman includes trans women

The UK Supreme Court is set to rule on whether or not the legal definition of a woman includes trans women.Judges in the UK Supreme Court will decide today (16 April) on the legal definition of a woman in a landmark case which could have wide-ranging implications for the trans and non-binary community. Trans rights activists expect that the decision may lead to the Equality Act 2010 being re-written and could impact the rights of trans women in spaces and services reserved and intended for women.

Advocate and social media icon Dylan Mulvaney has urged for “transness” to no longer be ingrained in political decisions “because it shouldn’t be”. She told Sky News: “We’re just humans trying our best.”Dylan Mulvaney has spoken out in support of trans rights ahead of the ruling.



(Emma McIntyre/WireImage)The case has been brought forward by gender-critical group For Women Scotland (FWS) against the Scottish government and will ask five justices – Lord Reed, Lord Hodge, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lady Rose and Lady Simler – to consider: “Is a person with a full Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) which recognises that their gender is female, a ‘woman’ for the 2010 Equality Act?”FWS, who have been publicly supported by author JK Rowling, describes itself as a “grassroots women’s group” founded at a time of “growing unease about how women’s rights would be affected by the Scottish government’s plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), to allow for self-declaration of sex”.Barrister Aidan O’Neill, who is representing the group, argued that considering a person with a GRC a woman was “legal fiction” and that sex was an “immutable biological state”.Activists expect that the decision could impact the rights of trans women in spaces and services reserved and intended for women.

(Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)Ahead of the case being heard, FWS member Susan Smith said: “If the Supreme Court sides with us, that’s fine. If they don’t, it’s a headache for Westminster. If we lose, it means that sex in the Equality Act isn’t really definable.

It’s meaningless, essentially.”The case is a direct challenge to judge Lady Haldane’s ruling in December 2022 that sex is “not limited” to biological sex and the ability of a GRC to change a person’s legal sex “does not offend against, or give rise to any conflict with, legislation where it is clear that ‘sex’ means biological sex”.Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.

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