UK Supreme Court rules that trans women are not women under the law

Scottish First Minister John Swinney
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Supreme Court of the U.K. ruled earlier today that the legal definition of a woman under the country’s 2010 Equality Act is based on “biological sex.” However, the court said that trans people still have protections against discrimination under the law.

The ruling could affect trans people in the U.S. Anti-transgender advocates in the U.S. often cite U.K. laws and the work of anti-transgender activists in the U.K.

“The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex,” Judge Patrick Hodge said for the five judges on the court. “But we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another, it is not.”

“The Equality Act 2010 gives transgender people protection, not only against discrimination through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, and harassment in substance in their acquired gender.”

The case was a challenge brought by the anti-trans group For Women Scotland against the Scottish government, where the Scottish government argued that trans women who…

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