by Ally McLaren
On Wednesday 16th April, 2025, five judges at the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under the UK Equality Act 2010. This ruling aimed to provide clarity on sex-based protections, yet has instead caused confusion and fear for transgender women.
The ruling came about due to the campaign group For Women Scotland, who brought a case against the Scottish government stating that sex-based protections should apply only to people that are born female. The Supreme Court was asked to clarify what the definition of a woman is in terms of the Equality Act, which led to the ruling that women and sex refer to a biological
woman and biological sex.
Trans activists, campaigners and individuals have warned that this definition could remove protections against trans people, furthering discrimination and excluding trans women from female-only spaces and services, including hospital wards, prisons, changing rooms and refuges.
It is currently unclear exactly how the ruling will impact on these same-sex spaces - in court, the Scottish government confirmed that trans people with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) are entitled to the same protections as biological women, yet it was also stated that under the new ruling the same-sex spaces can exclude people with GRCs if it is ‘proportionate’.
Yet, the British Transport Police (BTP) have already released a statement to introduce an ‘interim position’ following the ruling, stating that trans women in custody will now be strip searched by male officers in line with their biological sex, unlike their previous policy which allowed those with a GRC to be searched in accordance with their chosen sex.
There are concerns that those with a GRC will not be entitled to the same rights and protections the certificate provided before the ruling, yet there are also many trans people who do not have a GRC.
These certificates have been issued in the UK since the Gender Recognition Act in 2005, providing people with the legal right to change the sex recorded on their birth certificate.
Though the UK government estimates there are around 200,000 to 500,000 trans people in the UK, the Ministry of Justice only reports around 8,000 certificates being granted in the UK since 2005. This could be due to the costs to gain the certificate and meeting the strict legal criteria as reviewed by the Gender Recognition Panel - this includes a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Trans individuals have slammed the ‘heartbreaking’ decision of the Supreme Court, stating that they feel terrified about how this will implicate their lives moving forward, including which public toilets to use and the fear of trans hate crimes rising further.
According to the Statista Research Department, the number of hate crimes committed against transgender people in England and Wales has increased in recent years, reaching 4,732 offences in 2022/23, and only declining slightly to 4,780 offences in 2023/24, even before this ruling.
Many have provided the example of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, a trans teenage girl who was brutally murdered in broad daylight in February 2023.
In this case the court concluded that hate against transgender people was one of the motives for the premeditated murder.
Though women’s rights groups such as For Women Scotland have been seen celebrating this decision, other feminists have spoken up about how reducing women down to their chromosomes is harmful to all women.
But this decision proves scary for those AFAB (assigned female at birth), too, with rising concerns about how women are going to prove their chromosomes to access female-only spaces and how this will provide another way for people to discriminate against women for how they look and present themselves publicly.
Women with high testosterone, PCOS, who present more ‘masculine’, who are unable to have periods, or conceive, are also fearful of how this ruling will affect them.
Trans women are women and this decision, to reduce women to their biological characteristics, is harmful to all women.