The UK Supreme Court’s Definition of ‘Sex’ Is a Danger to Everyone

• Trans women can be lawfully excluded from women’s spaces—such as all-female boards, women’s refuges, sporting events, toilets and changing rooms. Although this was true before, on certain grounds, this can now potentially make it easier for anti-trans people to exclude trans women, while giving more opportunities to campaigners to build a case to change the law and ultimately update the Equality Act.
• Trans men are left in limbo—this court case specifically concerned the definition of woman in government legislation, so trans men have been entirely erased from the conversation.
• Legal protections for trans people are fragmented—while trans people continue to be protected from discrimination and harassment under the Equality Act, their right to live authentically has been curtailed by the court ruling.
• The judgment relied heavily on the testimony of gender-critical campaigners. Not a single trans person or organisation was consulted or heard during the process, meaning its evidence base is fundamentally flawed.
• The court has redefined lesbianism as AFAB same-sex attracted, excluding trans women and other gender-diverse individuals who identify as lesbians. This decision, made by a majority of cis-het men, disregards the lived realities and perspectives of the lesbian community and was made without their consultation.

This ruling is not merely symbolic—it will embolden discrimination, exclusion, and harassment across society. It sets a dangerous precedent for the erosion of human rights and signals a broader rollback of protections for LGBTQ+ people.

This decision won’t make women’s spaces safer. What it does is legitimise the policing of women’s bodies—with devastating consequences.

In the US, we’ve already seen the fallout of similar rhetoric: cisgender women with short hair, deep voices, or facial hair have been dragged out of bathrooms by security guards, humiliated simply for not conforming to outdated gender stereotypes. This ruling paves the way for the same to happen here.

Butch women, women with PCOS, those with hormone imbalances, or anyone who doesn’t fit rigid, Eurocentric ideals of femininity will bear the brunt of this. On the basis of number alone, more cis women are likely to face scrutiny and harassment than trans people as a consequence of this legislation and the message it sends.

Transphobia doesn’t stop with trans people. It creates a culture of fear and punishment for anyone who dares to exist outside narrow, oppressive definitions of what a “real” man or woman should look like. This ruling doesn’t protect women—it endangers anyone who doesn’t conform.

This ruling pits trans rights against women’s rights.

Trans inclusion has never been in conflict with women’s rights—just as rights for disabled women don’t undermine non-disabled women, or the rights of Black women don’t threaten white women. Our struggles are not in competition.

By defining “sex” as immutable and rooted in reproductive capacity, the court reduces womanhood to biology—a deeply patriarchal framing used for centuries to control women’s bodies. It doesn’t just harm trans women—it harms all women, especially those who don’t or can’t conform to traditional gender roles.

Feminism that excludes trans women isn’t feminism. It’s state-sanctioned misogyny, dressed up as concern. These rulings don’t protect women—they divide us, weaken our movements, and make solidarity harder just when we need it most.

When we fight together—trans, cis, intersex, queer, disabled, racialised, working class—we win. This judgment wants to stop that.

This ruling hands more power to conservative and reactionary forces that seek to roll back decades of progress on civil rights.

Gender-critical campaigners may believe they’ve achieved a feminist victory, but in reality, they’ve strengthened those who ultimately seek to undermine women’s rights.

The same forces pushing for the exclusion of trans people are the ones attacking abortion rights, dismantling protections for survivors of domestic violence, and restricting access to contraception and healthcare.

This ruling is part of a global movement from the far right to undo the progress made towards a more just and diverse society. It’s not just about trans people—it’s about creating a society where anyone who doesn’t conform to rigid, oppressive norms is excluded, controlled, or erased.

This decision risks emboldening politicians, campaigners, and media outlets to push further: into schools, healthcare, housing, and public life.

If your rights depend on someone else losing theirs, you don’t have rights—you have conditional permission. And when you ally yourself with those who oppose equality, you’re not just harming others, you’re setting the stage for your own rights to be stripped away.

Today it’s trans people, tomorrow it’ll be lesbians and eventually it’ll be cis women again.

This is a shared fight and we can’t be divided.

As a team of LGBTQ+ people and women, we’re heartbroken. We’re angry. And we’re tired of having to fight, again and again, for our right to exist.

But we are not giving up. Because we never have.

This ruling—like the headlines, the media firestorms, the moral panics—is designed to make us feel hopeless. To exhaust us. To divide us. To convince us that we are isolated, unsupported, and unwelcome.

But here’s the truth: we have always been here. Trans people. Queer people. Gender-diverse people. In every culture. Across every century. In families, in communities, in classrooms and care homes. We are not a new phenomenon—we are part of the fabric of society.

The law may try to erase us, but our lives—our love, our solidarity, our joy—are not up for debate.

We are not going back into the shadows. We are not letting a small, loud, well-funded minority of bigots tell our stories for us. They do not get to define who we are.

And we are not alone.

Across the UK and around the world, people are standing up—in anger, yes, but also in care. In community. In shared defiance. We are seeing allies speak out, families show up, and whole generations refuse to accept injustice as normal.

We know how to resist—because we’ve done it before. And together, we will do it again.

This fight didn’t start with this ruling. And it won’t end here either.