BROMSGROVE MP Bradley Thomas has called on the government to act swiftly in publishing updated guidance to protect single-sex spaces after the UK Supreme Court ruled that a man and a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law on Wednesday (April 16).
Campaign group, For Women Scotland brought forward a case against the Scottish Government to argue that sex-based protections should apply only to those born biologically female.
The group’s appeal asked judges to rule on whether a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) which states a person’s gender is female brings them within the Equality Act 2010’s definition of a ‘woman’.
Five judges from the UK supreme court ruled unanimously that the legal definition of a woman does not include transgender women with a GRC.
Lord Hodge told the court the Equality Act (EA) was very clear that its provisions dealt with biological sex at birth, and not with a person’s acquired gender, regardless of a GRC.
Following today’s (April 16th) ruling by the Supreme Court, Mr Thomas, said: “Today’s ruling is a victory for a common sense.
“It confirms what we all know to be true: that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.
“Now we have legal clarity, and its extraordinary we even had to get to this point when biological reality is glaringly obvious, the Government must now act swiftly to publish clear updated guidance to ensure single-sex spaces are protected.”
Despite the ruling, transgender rights campaigners have urged trans people and their support to remain calm about the decision.
The group Scottish Trans said on social media: “We’d urge people not to panic – there will be lots of commentary coming out quickly that is likely to deliberately overstate the impact that this decision is going to have on all trans people’s lives.
“We’ll say more as soon as we’re able to. Please look out for yourselves and each other today.”
Judge Lord Hodge did also stress that the ruling does not strip away protections against discrimination for transgender people.
