The U.K. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a woman is someone who is born biologically female.
The outcome excludes transgender people from the legal definition, and comes after a lengthy legal squabble between For Women Scotland (FWS) and the Scottish government.
The ruling was based off a 2022 legal challenge brought by FWS against the 2018 Scottish Act of Parliament definition of the term “woman,” which included people with protected characteristics of gender reassignment, those living as a woman, and people proposing to undergo, who have undergone, or are undergoing gender reassignment, the U.K. Supreme Court website says.
Scottish civil courts found the definition to be unlawful as it dealt with matters that fall outside the legislative jurisdiction of the Scottish Parliament. It was updated in 2023.
However, FWS moved to overturn the new definition as it stated that a person with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), recognizing that their gender is female, is considered a woman.
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After a spout of contentious back and forth in Scottish courts, FWS appealed to the U.K.’s Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, five judges ruled that the U.K. Equality Act meant that trans women can be excluded from some groups and single-sex spaces, including changing rooms, homeless shelters, swimming areas, and medical or counselling services meant only for women.
The court reiterated, however, that the ruling did not strip trans people of their rights, and that they are still legally protected from discrimination in the U.K. Nonetheless, the ruling states that certain protections are reserved for biological women but not transgender women.
The court said the unanimous decision shouldn’t be seen as a victory by one side, but several women’s groups that supported the appeal celebrated outside the court and hailed it as a major win in their effort to protect spaces designated for women, according to the Associated Press.
“Everyone knows what sex is and you can’t change it,” said Susan Smith, co-director of For Women Scotland.
“It’s common sense, basic common sense, and the fact that we have been down a rabbit hole where people have tried to deny science and to deny reality, and hopefully this will now see us back to reality,” she continued.
The ruling brings some clarity in the U.K. to a globally divisive discussion.
In the U.S., Republican states over the last four years have been banning gender-affirming care for minors, barring transgender women and girls from sports competitions that align with their gender, and restricting which public bathrooms transgender people can use.
Campaigners from For Women Scotland (FWS) outside the Supreme Court in London, where they are challenging the Scottish Government over whether trans women can be regarded as female under the 2010 Equality Act.
Lucy North / Getty Images
In Canada, under the Canadian Human Rights Act, transgender people are legally protected from discrimination based on gender identity and expression.
Bill C-16 was passed in 2017 and added gender identity and expression to the list of prohibited grounds for discrimination in Canada.
— With files from the Associated Press