Sanity Is Restored
Supreme Court ruling is a victory for truth over faddish radicalism
Sanity has been restored in the trans debate with the unanimous decision that the description ‘woman’ should be based on biological sex
Directors from For Women Scotland celebrate the ruling outside the Supreme Court - Photo LUCY NORTH/PA
After years of argument, ideological extremism and an outbreak of collective insanity across the public sector and in corporate boardrooms, the Supreme Court has finally proclaimed that a woman is an adult human female, and references to “sex” and “women” in the Equality Act refer to biological sex and biological women. The judgment, which the loudest and most unpleasant voices in this long-running campaign of misinformation against British feminists insisted would never come, was unanimous. All five justices agreed what millions of people know instinctively to be true: that biological sex, not the expression of a subjective gender identity, is the only meaningful qualification to womanhood.
Such an elementary truth should never have been contested before the highest court. That it was — in a bitter dispute between the self-styled progressives of Scotland’s nationalist government and the women who dared to defy them — is testament to a political and cultural establishment that lost touch with reality. It was always absurd that the SNP, much of the Labour Party, prominent Conservatives and countless public bodies and universities insisted that men were able to simply speak themselves into female-only spaces, some of which women fought for years to establish.
Redress and an end to the fear of persecution is finally coming for women who wish to protect their right to play sports against one another, and support victims of rape or male violence. Or in the case of lesbian groups specifically mentioned by the Supreme Court, gather together safe from discrimination. Until now these women were at risk of legal action by trans-identifying men citing the Equality Act, which the Scottish government insisted should treat the “sex” of a biological woman and a biological man armed with a gender recognition certificate as the same thing. That can never be the case, and women who lost their livelihoods and reputations in pointing out this scientific certainty should not have suffered for saying so.
Women like Kathleen Stock, the academic hounded out of Sussex University, or Maya Forstater, sacked from a think tank for her gender-critical views, were failed by political cowardice. Trans people are a tiny minority in Britain but, like all minorities, they have the right to be treated with respect and compassion, and to live peacefully, free from discrimination. Indeed, gender reassignment is itself a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. Their cause was hijacked by those who sought to erode the rights of women by equating gender expression with the immutable facts of nature. Politicians, always susceptible to faddish radicalism, were willing dupes.
So it came to pass that in 2021 Sir Keir Starmer, now prime minister, rebuked the then Labour MP Rosie Duffield for daring to say that only a woman could have a cervix. David Lammy, now foreign secretary, accused feminists challenging trans extremism of being “dinosaurs”. And Nicola Sturgeon’s political career was hastened to its end by her defence of the presence of a male rapist in a women’s prison. Thankfully, Sir Keir has abandoned these absurdities. His health secretary, Wes Streeting, has also apologised for telling women to “get over” their objections. Not before time.
Hopefully, the ruling will bring an end to this bizarre culture war. Now is not the time for triumphalism or gloating but consensus around two truths: that trans people have the right to live their lives in dignity and that women’s rights are sacrosanct also. To that end ministers must now amend the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 which only perpetuates the misconception that a piece of paper can alter the facts of life. Public institutions and universities must now be held to account if they ignore the law. Women should never have had to fight this battle in defence of scientific truth. But at least it is now won. Sanity is restored.
