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The judgment did not mention intersex people and made only a reference to nonbinary people.
The U.K. Supreme Court noted that transgender women are still protected from discrimination by the law.
The U.K.’s Supreme Court says that only cisgender women fit the legal definition of a woman in the country. In an 88-page decision announced Wednesday, the court’s five judges said the “concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man.”
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"The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms 'woman' and 'sex'… refer to a biological woman and biological sex," Judge Patrick Hodge, the deputy president of the Supreme Court, told the court, NPR reports.
The outlet notes that the decision ruled that a government-issued gender recognition certificate is not enough to be covered by the country’s Equality Act, which was signed in 2010 and provides legal recognition of someone’s official gender change.
The judgment did not mention intersex people and made only a reference to nonbinary people and the lack of a nonbinary choice on the gender recognition certificate.
Scotland, which is part of the U.K. but has a semi-autonomous government, passed a law in 2018 that all Scottish public organization boards must have an equal number of men and women members. Trans women were part of the number of women board members — if they had the gender recognition certificate, according to NPR.
A TERF group — an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminists — sued over the inclusion of trans women in that requirement. The organization, For Women Scotland, argued that services dedicated to women would be negatively impacted, like sports teams, changing rooms, and shelters for victims of domestic violence.
The group lost its case in Scotland.
Wednesday’s decision overrules the Scottish court’s decision.
Anti-trans groups cheered the ruling.
Hodge said that part of the reasoning behind the ruling is that trans women would have “greater rights” than cisgender women on the boards and cited pregnancy and maternity leave provision, CNN reports.
Even though trans women could now be barred from single-sex services, Hodge said that the ruling should not be considered “as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another.”
Hodge added that trans people are still protected under U.K. law, “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.”
Hate crimes against transgender people have increased almost 200 percent in the last five years in England and Wales, according to the U.K. government. In 2023, Brianna Ghey, a young trans girl, was murdered in a park by two other teens.
The British government agreed with the court’s decision. It said the ruling “brings clarity and confidence, for women and service providers.”
It also said, “Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by this government.”
The government did not say how it planned to ensure trans women were still protected in light of this decision.
U.K. LGBTQ+ rights group Stonewall shared a statement on social media from its CEO, Simon Blake.
“Stonewall shares the deep concern at the widespread implications of today’s ruling from the Supreme Court. It will be incredibly worrying for the trans community and all of us who support them,” he said. He added that the court still affirmed that the Equality Act still protects trans people. “Once we read and fully digest the judgment, we will work with stakeholders across all sectors to provide as much clarity as possible.”
Transgender rights group Scottish Trans posted 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…Please look out for yourselves and each other today.”
