Our Response: The Diversity Trust on the UK Supreme Court ruling (16th April, 2025), regarding the legal definition of a ‘woman’.
Like many organisations and community groups who work for and are led by LGBTQ+ people, The Diversity Trust is hugely concerned about the waves of discrimination which are set to impact the LGBTQ+ community following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
The ruling handed down by the court has outlined that “woman” and “man”, as per the Equality Act 2010, means “biological woman” and “biological man”. This means that trans people are now identified by the sex they were assigned at birth, not their chosen gender, whether they have a Gender Recognition Certificate or not.
This is also a direct attack on intersex and non-binary people, who are not mentioned once in the 88-page judgement. The judgement document takes the view that “the concept of sex is binary”, and that this statement requires no explanation. This view is not only incorrect, but it goes directly against scientific evidence and expert consensus on the topic.
When handing down the judgement, it was declared that this ruling should not be seen as a siding with any one group, however as the Good Law Project has detailed, while voices hostile to trans rights in the UK were heard in the proceedings, not a single trans voice was listened to. It is yet another example of LGBTQ+ people’s voices being minimised on issues that affect them.
Trans people are already being forced out of public life, services and communities, and this ruling only seems to reinforce this. As Scottish Trans have already highlighted, “this judgement seems to suggest that there will be times where trans people can be excluded both from men’s and women’s spaces and services”. This leaves us with the pressing question of: ‘Where are trans people expected to go if spaces are closed to them?’.
Trans people will still have some level of protection under the Equality Act 2010, under the protected characteristic of Gender Reassignment. However, because this new ruling states “trans women” are men, and “trans men” are women, with or without legal gender recognition, it appears to undermine and cast doubt upon the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
The Supreme Court has made a judgement that appears to contain a number of contradictions, inaccuracies, and ethical issues, and ultimately, it poses more questions than it answers.
The long-term practical implications of this decision are still not one hundred percent clear, due to the complexity of the 88-page ruling, but what can be said is that immediate negative ramifications from this ruling are likely. Most notably, we will see an increase in the amount of transphobia and anti-trans rhetoric that is already present in the media.
The Diversity Trust will be collaborating with other LGBTQ+ organisations and allies to provide more clarity as soon as possible. We stand in solidarity with all trans, intersex and non-binary folk who will be negatively impacted by this decision. We are appalled that this ruling will further exclude an already marginalised part of our society. Trans men are men and Trans women are women.
We continue our critical work influencing social change to create a fairer and safer society: The Diversity Trust will never stop fighting for equal rights for all LGBTQ+ people.
Signposting Resources:
LGBT Switchboard https://switchboard.lgbt/ 08000119100
LGBT+ Foundation https://lgbt.foundation/ 03453303030
Mindline Trans+ 03003305468
Black Trans Hub: https://www.blacktranshub.co.uk/
Good Law Project’s signposting list: Support resources for our trans friends and allies | Good Law Project