by Jonathon Van Maren, The European Conservative
The central claim of the transgender movement was repudiated by headlines emblazoned across the front pages of nearly every major newspaper in the United Kingdom after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law on April 17.
From the Metro, the free daily newspaper given out on trains and buses to thousands of commuters: “Transwomen ‘not women’”
The Daily Telegraph: “Trans women are not women”
The Guardian: “Legal definition of woman ‘is based on biological sex’”
The Times: “Equality policies in chaos as court defines a woman”
The Independent: “Huge blow for trans rights as court says: you are not women”
Other outlets didn’t bother hiding their editorial line—the Daily Express headline read “Victory!”; the Daily Mail declared a “Historic victory for women and common sense”; and the Scottish Sun could not resist going with: “The Joy of Sex.”
The UK Supreme Court’s ruling marks the culmination of a protracted legal battle that is already sending shockwaves across the UK and, indeed, the Western world. In 2021, the feminist group For Women Scotland challenged the Scottish Government’s Gender Representation on Public Boards Act 2018, which included trans-identifying men in their definition of “woman,” arguing that this violated the Equality Act’s definition of “sex.”
Scotland’s highest civil court ruled in favor of For Women Scotland in 2022, holding that “sex” in the Equality Act refers to biological sex; the Scottish Government appealed the ruling, and the legal battle became a flashpoint for trans activist groups and their opponents alike as both recognized the likely significance of the outcome. In July 2024, the UK Supreme Court heard the case; on April 16, they solemnly declared the obvious: Women are, in fact, women.
Lord Hodge tried to soften the blow. “The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex,” he said, adding: “But we counsel against reading this judgement as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another, it is not.” It was a triumph nonetheless—the ruling permits single-sex services to exclude “transgender women”—and the ruling clarifies what sex has always meant under the law, rather than going forward.
In short, as one lawyer noted: “This has implications for cases concluded, cases currently being fought, employers’ trans access policies and lots more. Huge.” Or as J.K. Rowling, who spent the day trolling the trans activists who have sought to make her life miserable for the past half-decade, put it: “I can hear the rubbing of UK lawyers’ hands from here and I’m an ocean away.”