The Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex under the Equality Act 2010.
The court hearing arose after a campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) contested the Scottish government’s definition of a “woman” in laws governing female representation on public boards.
The group argued that extending the definition of a woman to transgender women would impact female equality, the BBC reports.
The ruling was announced by UK Supreme Court judge Lord Hodge he declared that the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of a woman is based on biological sex.
He said: “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.”
Lord Hodge counselled that this ruling should not be seen as a triumph for one side over an other and emphasised the protection against discrimination that trans people still have under the law.
The judge said: “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.”
He added: “As I shall explain later in this hand down speech, the Equality Act 2010 gives transgender people protection, not only against discrimination through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment in substance in their acquired gender.”
More to follow.