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Trans women are not legally women, Supreme Court rules

For Women Scotland cracked open a bottle of champagne outside the Supreme Court and broke into song to celebrate the ruling.

Susan Smith, the group’s co-director who was also handed a bouquet of flowers, said the group had been given no steer about which way the decision would go and was “really worried” it may go the other way.

In a statement outside court, she said: “Today, the judges have said what we always believed to be the case, women are protected by their biological sex - that sex is real.

“We are enormously grateful to the Supreme Court for this ruling.”

Speaking afterwards, she said: “Dogs and toddlers know what sex is. It’s one of the most concrete things in nature.

“Sex can’t be changed but the law had the capacity to make a mess of anything. We’re just really glad common sense prevailed.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Baroness Kishwer Falkner, its chairman, said: “Today the Supreme Court ruled that a gender recognition certificate does not change a person’s legal sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.

“We are pleased that this judgment addresses several of the difficulties we highlighted in our submission to the court, including the challenges faced by those seeking to maintain single-sex spaces, and the rights of same-sex attracted persons to form associations.

“As we did not receive the judgment in advance, we will make a more detailed statement once we have had time to consider its implications in full.”

Kemi Badenoch has said “you cannot change your biological sex” as she reacted to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“Saying ‘trans women are women’ was never true in fact, and now isn’t true in law either,” the leader of the Conservative Party said.

“This is a victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious. Women are women and men are men: you cannot change your biological sex.

“The era of Keir Starmer telling us women can have penises has come to an end. Well done to For Women Scotland!”

The Government must now “recognise and respect women’s fundamental sex-based rights”, a former Labour MP has said.

Rosie Duffield, the MP for Canterbury who quit the party in September last year, told The Telegraph: “The Labour Party are among those who will now have to recognise and respect women’s fundamental sex-based rights, and spaces, and the rights of lesbians to meet, without the imposition of those men who claim to have become women.”

Lara Brown, a senior research fellow at Policy Exchange, said “it should never have been left to the courts to answer the question of ‘what is a woman?’”.

 “By confirming that ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 means “biological sex”, the Supreme Court has secured women’s sex-based rights – rights to which they have always been entitled as a matter of law,” she said.

“While this is a welcome victory, it should never have been left to the courts to answer the question of ‘what is a woman?’

“Had the Government used their statutory powers to clarify that sex in the Equality Act 2010 means biological sex, when Policy Exchange called for them to do in 2023, the Scottish Ministers would never have been able to issue unlawful advice on the subject.”

The Tories hailed the Supreme Court’s decision as a “clear victory for common sense”.

Mims Davies, the shadow minister for women, posted on X: “This morning’s decision is important for women right across our country.

“This is a clear victory for common sense - and should never have taken a court case to prove the biological definition of a woman.”

She said the Tories had been urging the Government “for many months to grip this situation and publish clear updated guidance”.

“Now that we have legal clarity, ministers must do this without delay,” she said.

“As Minister for Women and Equalities [Kemi Badenoch] started a call for evidence for examples of where bad guidance was misinterpreting the law – the Government should use that work to make the guidance clear and certain so that the dignity, privacy and safety of women and girls is respected and crucially protected. Doing so will ensure safety, fairness and equality.”

There were scenes of jubilation outside the Supreme Court as campaigners reacted to the ruling.

Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, said it meant the notion of gender self-identification (self-ID) was “dead”.

“We’re really proud,” she told the Telegraph. “They thanked us for our cogent argument. It has turned the Equality Act from confused to being clear.

“They looked at the whole argument, not just who goes in what bathroom and trans women. This is going to change organisations, employers, service providers.

“Everyone is going to have to pay attention to this, this is from the highest court in the land. It’s saying sex in the Equality Act is biological sex. Self ID is dead.”

Trina Budge, the director of For Women Scotland, said the Supreme Court’s ruling had provided “absolute clarity” on what a woman is.

Ms Budge said the ruling would answer the question once and for all of who could use women-only spaces.

She told Sky News: “It is absolutely a victory for women’s rights. This case was always about women, never about trans rights who, as Judge Hodge said, that they are fully protected in law still.

“But now we have clarity over what a woman means in law.”    

She added: “It means there is absolute clarity in law regarding what a woman is. We know for sure now that we are referring to the biological sex class of women and that when we say a woman-only space it means exactly that: Just women, no men, not even if they have a gender recognition certificate.”