Why UK Supreme Court's gender ruling is a welcome injection of common sense

Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman should lead to an urgent review of policies about single-sex spaces

In the long, bitter and divisive gender debate, the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on the definition of the word ‘woman’ is a landmark moment that will add much-needed clarity.

The judges ruled unanimously that “the meaning of the terms ‘sex’, ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in the Equality Act 2010 is biological and not certificated sex. Any other interpretation would render the [Act] incoherent and impracticable to operate”. So trans women and trans men are not, respectively, women and men – at least in terms of the Act – even if they have a gender recognition certificate.

The case brought by gender-critical campaign group For Women Scotland means that the appointment of a trans woman would not count towards achieving the Scottish Government’s goal that women should make up half of the non-executive members on the boards of public bodies.

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Susan Smith, left, and Marion Calder, co-directors of gender-critical campaign group For Women Scotland, celebrate the UK Supreme Court's decision about the definition of a woman (Picture: Lucy North) | PA

Resolving clashes of rights

Beyond this, the wider implications of the decision are still being worked out, but disputes over single-sex spaces must surely now be seen in a different light. It is difficult to see how NHS Fife, for example, can maintain its current policy that trans women should use the women’s changing room, which is at the heart of the employment tribunal involving nurse Sandie Peggie and trans woman, Dr Beth Upton.

However, it should be remembered that, first and foremost, trans people are human beings with the same human rights as anyone else. Where there are clashes of rights, these need to be resolved as sympathetically as possible, with compromises reached if necessary, through negotiations held in good faith and designed to achieve the best possible outcomes for all concerned.

A ‘culture war’ approach that seeks to demonise and exclude this vulnerable minority is simply unacceptable.

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SNP’s absolutist approach

The Supreme Court’s ruling stresses its decision “does not remove or diminish the important protections” for trans people with a gender recognition certificate and that, “to the contrary, this potentially vulnerable group remains protected...”

The cause of trans rights has not been helped by those who have sought to railroad through changes that lacked sufficient public support. Under Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Government took an absolutist approach, dismissing those who raised objections in rude and insulting terms.

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Its mishandled attempt to bring in a new law on gender self-identification, which was blocked by the UK Government, was accompanied by a behind-the-scenes introduction of policies that led to the farcical decision to initially send a double rapist to a women’s prison.

Reasoned negotiations

Such policies were never going to survive contact with reality, and it was a truly extraordinary political misjudgment to suppose that they would. By over-reaching and ignoring public opinion with the conviction of zealots, Scottish ministers actually damaged the cause of trans rights.

The Supreme Court ruling is being seen as a severe setback by trans rights campaigners, but it could actually help spark the kind of reasoned negotiations that should have been held in the first place about how to resolve clashes of rights.

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There is now an urgent need for the public and private sectors to update their policies about single-sex spaces. Regarding changing rooms, it is surely not beyond our wit to devise an arrangement that enables everyone to get dressed in peace – this is a practical, not an ideological, problem.

Overall, this ruling should help restore common sense to an overly heated debate. That it took Supreme Court judges to do so may seem incredible, but now is a chance to move on at long last.