You may have seen on the news recently the growing number of trans protests and campaigns taking place across the UK; but what are they protesting?
Earlier in the year, the United Kingdom Supreme Court ruled that, in the eyes of the law, transgender women were classified as men and transgender men as women, (ie, that ‘man’ and ‘woman’ referred to biological sex only) regardless of their ownership of a GRC (gender recognition certificate).
To understand this, first we have to go back to 2010, the year of the Equality Act. The 2010 Equality Act stated certain protected characteristics that employers and other figures could not discriminate against. For instance, someone could not refuse to hire you because of your ethnicity. This act was one of the primary focuses of the ruling, and the primary area of its effect.
The new legal battle, however, started in 2018, when the Scottish Parliament aimed to pass a new bill to balance gender distribution across public sector boards. Gender Criticals (people who believe transgender activists aim to take away rights for women) across Scotland were upset that this bill considered trans people in their quotas. However, no transgender individuals currently reside on any of these boards. Despite that, this began a debate as to what “counted” as a woman – was it “biological” sex or “certified”?
So why is a legal matter in Scotland coming over to the UK? This is because of archaic laws of devolution, which state that England still holds power over Scotland and other countries in the UK, despite these countries developing much beyond us. Therefore, when the Scottish Parliament didn’t resolve the bill, Gender Critical organisations appealed to the UK Supreme Court in London.
This ruling was pushed by a Gender Critical group called For Women Scotland. One of this group’s primary benefactors is the author JK Rowling, who has already been at the centre of controversy for years for her beliefs on transgender communities and her TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) views.
So what does this ruling mean? And why are trans people upset about it?
Many transgender women could face discrimination for their gender at work or other places without protection from the 2010 Equality Act. For example, previously, an employer couldn’t pay a trans woman less than her male colleagues, as it would be discriminating against her protected characteristic of her sex. However, after the change, she would no longer be able to take legal action against that, as – in the eyes of the law – her and her male coworkers are the same gender. To clarify, gender reassignment is still a protected characteristic – while this change weakens protection for discrimination based on gender, targeting someone for transitioning is still illegal.
It also means exclusion from same-sex spaces. A transgender man could be legally denied entry to a men’s prison, hospital ward, refugee camp, school or bathroom, and would be unable to argue that he was being discriminated against, and vice versa for a trans woman. The ruling also weakens protection for trans lesbians or trans gay men, as they could be denied entry to certain queer spaces.
In certain contexts, it could mean transgender people are denied entry to both single-sex spaces. Even with single-sex bathrooms before the change, many trans individuals who do not “pass” as one gender or the other struggled with finding a safe and comfortable bathroom. Now, with no legal protection, this fear only worsens.
Unfortunately, this inadvertently affects intersex people as well, those who have bodies that can’t be easily categorised as male or female (for example, having characteristics of both, “mismatched” chromosomes and physical attributes, or neither). Navigating the world of gender and sex can already be difficult for intersex people, as even from the moment they are born they are legally marked as a category that doesn’t suit them. Many intersex people are subjected to unnecessary operations when they are young in the hope to better pass them off as male or female. This new ruling means that, regardless of not being fully one sex or the other, they are now legally categorised as so, which can affect their protection against discrimination and their healthcare.
Currently protests have been held all over England, in major cities like London, Swindon, Leeds, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Coventry, Norwich and even here in Leicester. The protests hope to reverse the ruling, or, at the very least, enshrine certain trans rights, like the access to gender affirming care on the NHS. As of June, all the way through to October, there have also been a number of trans pride parades and events, where people have been keeping hopeful and celebrating, as well as further protesting the new changes.
