UK Supreme Court Shatters Transgender Delusion in Landmark Victory for Women

Britain’s top court unanimously rules that “sex is binary” and “only biological women can become women.”

Susan Smith (L) and Marion Calder, directors of For Women Scotland celebrate as they leave Britain's Supreme Court in London on April 16, following the court's ruling on how to define a 'woman'. Britain's Supreme Court said the legal definition of a "woman" is based on a person's sex at birth, a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications to the bitter debate over trans rights. In a win for Scottish gender-critical campaigners who brought the case to the UK's highest court, five London judges unanimously ruled "the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman, and biological sex." (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)

The legal definition of “a woman” is based on biological sex, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in a landmark judgment which could have far-reaching consequences in the battle to keep gender-confused men out of women’s spaces.

The court’s five judges unanimously declared that “concept of sex is binary” and transgender females cannot legally define themselves as women, as the terms “man,” “woman” and “sex” under the Equality Act 2010 “refer to biological sex.” They flatly rejected the idea of “acquired gender.”

The Equality Act aims to prevent discrimination based on nine “protected characteristics,” including religion, gender reassignment, pregnancy, maternity, sex, and sexual orientation.

In their 88-page ruling, the judges reasoned that the provisions of the Equality Act on the protected characteristics of “pregnancy” and “maternity” are based on “the fact of pregnancy and giving birth to a child.”

“As a matter of biology, only biological women can become pregnant,” they wrote. Hence, the provisions on protected characteristics like “pregnancy” and “maternity” are “unworkable unless ‘man’ and ‘woman’ have a biological meaning.”

Consequently, “the provisions relating to sex discrimination [in the Equality Act] can only be interpreted as referring to biological sex,” the judges wrote, rejecting the idea that “‘woman’ and ‘sex’ can refer to biological sex in some sections of the EA 2010, and certificated sex in others.”

Scottish Women Win Battle

Lord Patrick Hodge, the deputy president of the court, cautioned against reading the judgment as “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another.” Therefore, the ruling “does not cause disadvantage to trans people” because they continue to be protected under equality laws.

However, the historic ruling does end a seven-year legal battle between the Scottish government and For Women Scotland — a campaign group working to keep women’s rights from being erased through pro-transgender legislation.

“We believe that there are only two sexes, that a person’s sex is not a choice, nor can it be changed,” the group states. It rejects “the undefined and unscientific concept of gender identity.”

For Women Scotland began fighting the Scottish Parliament soon after it passed the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018. The law aimed to achieve gender balance on public boards by ensuring that half of the non-executive members would be women.

However, the interpretation of “women” in the quotas Scottish Parliament set extended to men who, despite being biologically male, identify as women and hold a “gender recognition certificate” that validates their gender identity.

For Women Scotland contested the policy in the Scottish courts, and eventually appealed to the Supreme Court.

Triumph for Truth

Britons received the court’s decision with a sense of relief and rejoicing.

“From this day forward you are no longer a woman. You are a man with a meaningless piece of paper,” Laurence Fox, leader of Britain’s Reclaim Party, tweeted to transgender folk in general. “Wear a dress, no one cares, call yourself Shirley, no one cares. It’s your life, live it how you please, but we will not be forced to participate in a lie. You’re a man. The end.”

“It took three extraordinary, tenacious Scottish women with an army behind them to get this case heard by the Supreme Court and, in winning, they’ve protected the rights of women and girls across the UK,” declared J.K. Rowling, author of the famous Harry Potter series. Rowling has been at the forefront of the battle against transgender activists.

Writing in The Telegraph, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch observed: “Women are women. We didn’t need a court to tell us that. But here we are. It took a Supreme Court decision to confirm what we all know: that a piece of paper cannot make a man a woman.

“For too long the price has been paid by individual women taking action to uphold the law, at great personal cost,” he added.

Transgender Activists Shattered

Transgender activists led by the controversial LGBTQ+ campaign group Stonewall branded the ruling “incredibly worrying,” especially given the “widespread implications.”

The United Nation’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, hailed the judgment as a “triumph of reason and facts.”

For Women Scotland Codirector Susan Smith, who was also handed a bouquet of flowers, said her group was “enormously grateful to the Supreme Court for this ruling.”

“Today, the judges have said what we always believed to be the case: Women are protected by their biological sex — that sex is real,” Smith said. “Dogs and toddlers know what sex is. It’s one of the most concrete things in nature.”

Result of the “Trump Effect”

Commentators on social media suggested that the ruling may have been the result of the “Trump effect.”

One of Donald Trump’s first executive orders on Inauguration Day was titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

The order blasted “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex” and invade women’s spaces, from domestic abuse shelters to workplace showers.

“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” Trump said. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

The order defined “female” as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell” and “male” as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”

Therefore, the administration “will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male,” Trump announced.

Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.