Trans women are not legally women under Equality Act, Supreme Court rules
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Court rules trans women aren’t legally women under Equality Act
- The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Equality Act's definition of a woman is based on biological sex.
- Five judges unanimously decided that transgender women with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) should not be treated as women under the 2010 Equality Act.
- The ruling is in response to a challenge by For Women Scotland (FWS) regarding the inclusion of transgender women with GRCs in the 50 per cent female quota for public boards in Scotland.
- The court's decision has implications for how sex and gender are legally defined and applied across UK law, potentially affecting transgender women's rights to use single-sex spaces and services.
- The case originated in 2022 when FWS challenged a Scottish law including transgender women in the definition of "woman" for public board representation, leading to the Supreme Court appeal.