Supreme Court Ruling on Sex in the Equality Act - One Year On

An update on what's happened since the ruling

It’s been one year now since the Supreme Court ruled that “sex” in the Equality Act means “biological sex”. You can read our statement about this below, and find out more about the ruling itself and our work on it here.

Back in February, we gave a presentation at one of our events on what’s happened since the UK Supreme Court ruling, and what we do and don’t know. The presentation covers:

1. What the case was about and what the Supreme Court decided
2. What the decision means (as far as we know)
3. What’s happened since
4. What could still happen

It doesn’t cover everything, but we hope it will help. You can download it here (clicking the link will download the powerpoint file.)

We also produced a human rights analysis on the impact of the ruling on trans people, which you can read here.

Our statement on the Supreme Court ruling one year on

One year on from the UK Supreme Court’s ruling that “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 means “biological sex at birth”, trans people still find ourselves facing total uncertainty, as do the services and workplaces that want to include us.  

Banned from sports and associations like Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute. Banned from toilets that align with our gender identity in the Scottish Parliament. Being outed to colleagues at work, or being unable to access safe and inclusive facilities at school because we can no longer use toilets we have used for years. Uncertainty about how we will be treated when we need to access vital emergency services. 

Some have said that the ruling brought ‘clarity’. It has done anything but.  

Instead, years of understanding of how the law worked has been turned on its head, and trans people face the prospect of navigating a world that just doesn’t work for us. Decades ago, the law, services, workplaces and society insisted on treating us as our “biological sex at birth”, with no respect for or recognition of who we truly are. It didn’t work. It meant we faced discrimination, inequality and breaches of our human rights. That’s why Courts decided it should change, and why the law was changed to provide us with recognition and protection from discrimination. And it’s why international human rights actors like the Council of Europe (new tab) and UN Experts (new tab) have sounded the alarm about the UK’s direction of travel.  

Has the Supreme Court ruling really turned the clock all the way back?  

Noone seems to know for sure. But what we do know is that trans people need to be able to access safe, appropriate and inclusive services like everyone else. We need to be able to go to work with privacy and dignity. We need to be recognised as who we truly are. Excluding and segregating us from others and never treating us in line with our gender identities can never achieve that. 

So, what do we need to put this right? As far as we can tell there are two options, depending on what the law means now (which is still unclear.)  

If the law still allows for us to be properly included and recognised as who we truly are, then we need strong leadership from the UK Government that is clear that this is the case. Services and workplaces need to know they have that option, so that the huge number that want to include and support us can do so confidently. 

If the law doesn’t, we need Governments to take decisive action and change the law to make sure that Scotland and the UK return to being places where trans people can have our human rights protected and can live our lives with the same dignity as anyone else.