Trans rights protestors deface Millicent Fawcett statue as thousands take to UK streets following Supreme Court ruling
19 April 2025, 18:23 | Updated: 19 April 2025, 19:08
Trans rights protesters have defaced a statue of suffragette Millicent Fawcett as thousands took to the streets of London to defend trans rights in the wake of the Supreme Court's gender ruling.
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The iconic statue, located in London's Parliament square - a location renowned for mass protest, depicts the suffragette grasping a banner reading: "Courage calls to courage everywhere".
At least two statues in the square were vandalised during Saturday's rally, with police now investigating after they revealed a total of seven statues had been defaced during the day of action - which saw activists take to the streets across the UK.
The statue of the suffragette was scrawled with "f** rights" on the banner grasped by the figure.
Meanwhile "trans rights are human rights" was spray-painted onto the plinth of South African military leader Jan Christian Smuts.
It follows last week’s controversial decision on gender - more specifically the definition of a woman - a ruling that led to widespread division of opinion among the general public.
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.
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“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.”
