Women who transitioned decades ago feel their safety and security has suddenly been removed
Last week’s supreme court ruling sent shock waves through the UK’s trans community.
The unanimous judgment said the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 did not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates (GRCs).
That feeling was compounded when Kishwer Falkner, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is preparing new statutory guidance, said the judgment meant only biological women could use single-sex changing rooms and toilets.
Well, that’s not so bad then as this case can still be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights then.
I distinctly remember how one of the “benefits” Brexiters claimed for leaving the EU was not having to be a member of the Euopean Convention of Human Rights anymore (which is mandatory for all EU members), so I’m pleasantly surprised the UK hasn’t left it yet (I was an EU immigrant in Britain and left the country just before Brexit and didn’t really keep up with British politics since).
This case specifically can’t be appealed to the ECHR since the scotland act doesn’t allow the devolved government to do so (IIRC), so we’ll probably have a few years of this until another case works its way up the ladder.