Blitz Bureau
In a decision which could have farreaching implications, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex and excluded transgender people from the legal definition. However, judge Lord Hodge, who announced the decision, said the ruling should not be seen as a triumph of one side over the other, and stressed that the law still gives protection against discrimination to transgender people.
The court ruled that the “meaning of the terms ‘sex,’ ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in the [Equality Act 2010] refer to biological sex, as any other interpretation would render the [Equality Act 2010] incoherent and impracticable to operate.”
The outcome of the case will have an impact on the whole of the UK after the lengthy legal battle between a feminist group and the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government had included transgender women in quotas to ensure gender balance on public sector boards. Campaign group For Women Scotland argued that sexbased protections should only apply to people born female, reported BBC.
The judges ruled that the definition of sex as used in the Equality Act 2010 is “binary” and decided by biology – a person who was not born as a biological female cannot obtain the legal protections the Act affords to women by changing their gender with a Gender Recognition Certificate.
The Scottish Parliament had decided in 2018 that in its Gender Representation on Public Boards Act, the definition of a woman included people “with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment,” people “living as a woman” and those “proposing to undergo, undergoing, who have undergone a gender reassignment process.” Thousands of people took to the streets in London to protest against the ruling. People from the transgender community said that the ruling is a threat to their identity.
Demonstrators were seen holding LGBTQ flags and placards reading: “trans women are women” and “trans rights are human rights.” The London Police have said that multiple statues near the protest area were vandalised, including one of suffragette Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square.
