Supreme Court rules Equality Act applies to biological women
The highest court in the UK has ruled that trans women are not “women” under the Equality Act.
Campaign group For Women Scotland took the Scottish Government to court over plans to include trans women in gender balance target.
The Scottish Government has a target for increasing the proportion of women on public boards – including those who were reassigned or those ‘living as women’.
This comes as the Scottish government argued transgender people with a gender recognition certificate are entitled to sex-based protections.
The UK Supreme Court was asked to review if a person with a full gender recognition certificate, that label themselves as female, is or is not a “woman” for the purposes of the Equality Act.
The campaign group challenged the lawfulness of the government’s statutory guidance in the Outer House, but in December 2022, the Outer House dismissed their petition.
The group appealed and in November 2023, the Inner House upheld the decision of the Outer House and dismissed the appeal.
Before reading out the judgment, one of the Lord Reed said: “When we announce our decision on this case, some will be pleased some will be disappointed”.
Lord Hodge read out the full ruling, explaining: “The central question of this appeal is the meaning of the terms of woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010, if those terms refer to biological women or biological sex, or is a woman to be interpreted as extending to a trans woman with a gender recognition certificate.”
“By that, I mean a person born male who now possesses a gender recognition certificate, amending a female, and sex to be interpreted as including what I will refer to as certificated sex.”
He ruled that “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.”
“But we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another,” he added.
The senior judge said: “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 UK Supreme Court unanimously allowed the campaign group’s appeal after it held that the terms “man”, “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.
The case is set to have far-reaching consequences for British legislation.
Chelsea Feeney, associate at law firm Stevens & Bolton stated: ““Whilst this judgment pertains to the application of “woman” in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018, I strongly suspect it will be referred to in many more disputes and policies to come, especially as debates around diversity and equality policies continue to rage.”
Reacting to the ruling, a Government spokesman said: “We have always supported the protection of single-sex spaces based on biological sex.”
“This ruling brings clarity and confidence, for women and service providers such as hospitals, refuges, and sports clubs. Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by this government,” the added.
While a Labour source said Sir Keir Starmer had “gradually moved the party from one that took the activist position to a serious, sensible one that protected women’s spaces while allowing for respectful debate”.
The source said: “This just shows why it was so important that Keir hauled the Labour Party back to the common sense position the public take on these sorts of issues.”
“He gradually moved the party from one that took the activist position to a serious, sensible one that protected women’s spaces while allowing for respectful debate. It’s one of the reasons the country felt Labour was safe to elect just a few years after the disaster of 2019,” they added.
While Kemi Badenoch has lauded the ruling as a “victory”.
The Conservative Party leader said: “Saying ‘trans women are women’ was never true in fact, and now isn’t true in law either.”
“This is a victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious. Women are women and men are men: you cannot change your biological sex. The era of Keir Starmer telling us women can have penises has come to an end. Well done to For Women Scotland,” she added.