<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/uk" rel="" target="" title="UK"><span>UK</span></a><span> Supreme Court has ruled that a </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/women" rel="" target="" title="woman"><span>woman</span></a><span> is someone born biologically female, excluding </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/transgender" rel="" target="" title="transgender"><span>transgender</span></a><span> people from the legal definition in a long-running dispute between a feminist group and the Scottish government.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Several women's groups that supported the appeal celebrated outside </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/courts" rel="" target="" title="court"><span>court</span></a><span> today and hailed it as a major victory in their effort to protect spaces designated for women.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Everyone knows what sex is and you can't change it," said Susan Smith, co-director of For Women Scotland, which brought the case. </span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/easter-holidaymakers-warned-after-couples-home-ransacked-following-airport-robbery/300cf184-73ed-4872-b100-347ed40a4983"><strong><span>Couple's home ransacked following airport robbery</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"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."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>A unanimous decision</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Five judges ruled unanimously that the UK Equality Act means trans women can be excluded from some groups and single-sex spaces, such as changing rooms, homeless shelters, swimming areas and medical or counselling services provided only to women.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/uk-news-supreme-court-says-definition-of-a-woman-is-based-on-biological-sex-and-excludes-transgender-people/eb77c36f-c4ba-4008-905a-0bc0516892b6" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The ruling means that a transgender person with a certificate that recognises them as female should not be considered a woman for equality purposes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The ruling brings some clarity in the UK to a contentious issue that has polarised politics in some other countries as well.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Justice Patrick Hodge said the British ruling "does not remove protection from trans people", who are still protected from discrimination under UK law.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/federal-election-2025-peter-dutton-admits-mistake-over-indonesia-comment-debate-anthony-albanese/bb84cd30-1113-4e01-bb1b-a87ea87478f3"><strong><span>Dutton admits mistake, Albanese blasts 'extraordinary' claim</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The case stems from a 2018 law passed by the Scottish Parliament saying 50 per cent of the membership of the boards of Scottish public bodies should be women. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Transgender women with gender recognition certificates were to be included in meeting the quota.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Interpreting 'sex' as certificated sex would cut across the definitions of 'man' and 'woman' ... and, thus, the protected characteristic of sex in an incoherent way," Hodge said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It would create heterogeneous groupings."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/ashcroft-crash-tears-for-boys-killed-as-driver-nicholas-thew-sentenced/f38c87ef-0434-4c5f-a8aa-b48f5ae9a0c9" rel="" target="" title=""><strong><span>Killer driver approached dying boys, but didn't assist</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Trans rights advocates condemn the judgment</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The campaign group Scottish Trans said it was "shocked and disappointed" by the ruling, saying it would undermine legal protections for transgender people enshrined in the 2004 Gender Recognition Act.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maggie Chapman, a Green Party lawmaker in the Scottish Parliament, said the ruling was "deeply concerning" for human rights and "a huge blow to some of the most marginalised people in our society."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Trans people have been cynically targeted and demonised by politicians and large parts of the media for far too long," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This has contributed to attacks on longstanding rights and attempts to erase their existence altogether."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Groups that had challenged the Scottish government uncorked a bottle of champagne outside the court and sang, "women's rights are human rights".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The court has given us the right answer: the protected characteristic of sex — male and female — refers to reality, not to paperwork," said Maya Forstater of the group Sex Matters. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In 2022, an employment tribunal ruled that she had been the victim of discrimination when she lost out on a job after posting gender-critical views online.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The British government welcomed the ruling, saying it would provide clarity and confidence for women.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by this government," it said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Scotland's semi-autonomous government said it accepted the judgment.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We will now engage on the implications of the ruling," First Minister John Swinney posted on X. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Protecting the rights of all will underpin our actions."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>'One's bodily reality'</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>For Women Scotland had argued that the Scottish officials' redefinition of woman went beyond parliament's powers. But Scottish officials then issued new guidance stating that the definition of woman included someone with a gender recognition certificate.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>FWS successfully sought to overturn that.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Not tying the definition of sex to its ordinary meaning means that public boards could conceivably comprise of 50 per cent men and 50 per cent men with certificates, yet still lawfully meet the targets for female representation," the group's director Trina Budge said previously.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The challenge was rejected by a court in 2022, but the group was granted permission last year to take its case to the Supreme Court.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Aidan O'Neill, a lawyer for FWS, told the Supreme Court judges — three men and two women — that under the Equality Act "sex" should refer to biological sex as understood "in ordinary, everyday language".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Our position is your sex, whether you are a man or a woman or a girl or a boy, is determined from conception in utero, even before one's birth, by one's body," he said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It is an expression of one's bodily reality. It is an immutable biological state."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Harry Potter author backed challenge</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The women's rights group counted among its supporters author JK Rowling, who reportedly donated tens of thousands of pounds to back its work. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The </span><em><span>Harry Potter</span></em><span> writer has been vocal in arguing that the rights for trans women should not come at the expense of those who are born biologically female.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Rowling said she was "so proud" of the "extraordinary, tenacious" For Women Scotland campaigners who took the case on a years-long battle through the courts.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Rowling wrote on X that "in winning, they've protected the rights of women and girls across the UK".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Opponents, including Amnesty International, said excluding transgender people from sex discrimination protections conflicted with human rights laws.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Amnesty submitted a brief in court saying it was concerned about the deterioration of the rights for trans people in the UK and abroad.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"A blanket policy of barring trans women from single-sex services is not a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate aim," the human rights group said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em></em><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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