Trans rights groups stage massive London protest over landmark gender court ruling
Trans rights protesters have taken to London in their thousands following this week’s controversial Supreme Court decision on the definition of a woman.
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Activist groups, trade unions and charities took to Parliament Square for an “emergency demonstration” after the Supreme Court declared trans women are not women in the eyes of the law.
Activists demanded “trans liberation” and “trans rights now”, with some waving flags and holding banners.
It comes after the UK’s highest court confirmed the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.
This means transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate”.
Keir Starmer’s government said the decision provides clarity and confidence” for women, while sources said the PM sees it as a “common sense position.”
The ruling means trans women cannot use single-sex female toilets, changing rooms or compete in women’s sports, according to the head of Britain’s equalities watchdog.
However, the decision has been slammed by Transgender and human rights groups.
Among the groups supporting the London protest are Trans Kids Deserve Better, Pride in Labour, the Front for the Liberation of Intersex Non-binary and Transgender people (Flint) and TransActual.
A rally and march organised by Resisting Transphobia will also take place in Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon.
Following the decision, LGBTQ+ activist group Stone Wall said: “Yesterday’s UK Supreme Court ruling marks a deeply concerning moment, with widespread and harmful implications for our communities.
“As a by-and-for LGBTQ+ organisation, we stand in full solidarity with trans, intersex and non-binary people as we begin to understand and respond to what this means.
“We’re looking closely at what this judgment means in practice – particularly in relation to the protections that remain in place for trans people under the Equality Act.
“We remain committed to working alongside partners across the LGBTQ+ sector and beyond to provide as much clarity as we can.
“Trans people have the right to live with safety, dignity and equality – today, tomorrow and always.
“We will never stop standing with you.”
Speaking to LBC, Melanie Field, an independent adviser on equality and human rights, who oversaw the Equality Act's drafting and passage through Westminster in 2010, has called for calm but warned this recent decision could be at odds with the act’s original goals.
She told LBC’s Paul Brand the legislation was meant to give transgender people with gender recognition certificates (GRCs) the same legal status as so-called “biological” men or women.
She said it was the “very clear” goal of the act that trans women with GRCs would be seen as women in the eyes of the law.
This will no longer be the case following the Supreme Court ruling.
Ms Field said: “So we're working in the context of that government policy and parliamentary intent that the gender recognition certificate should have the effect of changing a person's sex under sex discrimination law.
“So that was the basis on which we drafted the Equality Act 2010. And there are a number of exceptions in there that recognise the importance of biological sex in the provision of, for example, single sex services.
“And we were very careful to draft those provisions in a way that they would enable trans people to be treated differently in relation to those services, regardless of whether or not they had a gender recognition certificate.
“So my worry is that this Supreme Court judgement, which is sought to provide Clarity in a very sort of noisy and confused context, by applying a different interpretation to those provisions may mean that the act doesn't work in the way that was intended.”