The Bishop of Portsmouth has praised the Supreme Court for declaring that women are defined solely by biological sex.
The remarks of the Rt Rev. Philip Egan came after Lord Hodge, the court’s deputy president, said in a <a href="https://supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2024-0042"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">landmark ruling</mark></a> that the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act referred uniquely to a biological woman and to biological sex.
The decision of the highest court in the land has triggered a radical overhaul of practices in the police, the NHS, schools, public places and in sports where transsexual men have been given access to women’s sex-based rights.
Bishop Egan said: “I’m delighted that the Supreme Court has stood firm against the gender ideologues by affirming that biological sex is a God-given reality: ‘male and female he created them’.
“Males and females are equal and complementary and this is the basis of marriage, family life and society.”
“Our biological sex is moreover the basis of our own personal identity and our vocation in life.
“I am pleased too that the Supreme Court is by implication here also upholding the importance and dignity of the human body.”
He added: “At the same time however we must always lovingly respect and care for those who for whatever reasons, physical or psychological, are struggling with their gender identity.”
The case was brought by feminist campaign group For Women Scotland following the decision by the Scottish government to include so-called “trans-women” women in its interpretation of the Equality Act.
In the ruling, Lord Hodge said: “Interpreting sex as certificated sex would cut across the definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in the [Equality Act 2010] – and thus the protected characteristic of sex – in an incoherent way.”
He said: “The unanimous decision of this court is that the definition of the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.”
The ruling was not “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another”, Lord Hodge said, because transsexuals remain protected from unjust discrimination by other parts of the Equality Act.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission<mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"> <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/17/trans-people-should-gender-neutral-lavatories-supreme-court/">is already preparing a revised code of practice</a></mark> in which it will tell companies and public bodies how to respond to the ruling.
The decision is expected to prevent so-called transwomen accessing female only spaces such as toilets, changing rooms and hospital wards or competing in female-only sports, carrying out strip searches on women if they are police officers, or serving in parts of the armed forces.
The ruling was welcomed by the Harry Potter author <a href="https://x.com/jk_rowling">JK Rowling who said on X</a>: “Spare a thought today for the UK employers, government departments, health boards, academic institutions and sporting bodies who've been breaking equality law to appease activist groups. So many HR manuals to pulp. So many out-of-court settlements to pay.”
Evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins also praised the court ruling as “a stunning victory for women”.
“And for science,” <a href="https://x.com/RichardDawkins"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">he said on X.</mark></a> “Nice to have something to celebrate, for a change”.
He said: “Yes, the science was settled in the Precambrian [Era]. “Nice that the law has finally caught up.”
Gender ideology emerged in the early 1990s and spread throughout the world in succeeding decades.
It dismisses biological and scientific categories of male and female in favour of an individual constructing a “gender” of their own choosing.
In the last 10 years it has caused an explosion in the numbers of people across the Western world who want to change their sex.
<mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/pope-benedict-predicted-gender-ideology-would-be-final-rebellion-against-god/">Pope Benedict XVI forcefully denounced gender ideology</a> </mark>in an address to the Roman Curia of 2012, just months before he relinquished his petrine ministry.
Pope Francis has repeatedly spoken against gender ideology, implicitly condemning such theories in <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">paragraph 155 of <em>Laudato S</em>i,</mark></a> his 2015 papal encyclical on the environment, and denouncing it publicly as part of a “global war on the family” and as global “ideological colonisation”.
In April 2024 the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith<a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20240402_dignitas-infinita_en.html"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"> explicitly rejected gender ideology in a document called <em>Dignitas Infinita</em></mark></a> (On Human Dignity) because it “envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family”.
The dicastery condemned medical interventions to change sex as contrary to the human dignity, and said that “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected”.
Weeks later the English and Welsh bishops released an 11-page pastoral document<mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"> <a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/catholic-bishops-of-england-and-wales-in-absolute-harmony-with-vatican-against-gender-ideology/">called <em>Intricately Woven by the Lord: A Pastoral Reflection on Gender</em></a><a href="http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/04/REFLECTION-Intricately-Woven-By-The-Lord.pdf">,</a> </mark>which objected to medical intervention for children to change sex.
Soon afterwards, the Diocese of Nottingham went further by forbidding the promotion of gender ideology and “Pride” activities in all Catholic schools and colleges through <a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/exclusive-diocese-of-nottingham-bans-celebration-of-pride-month-in-catholic-schools/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">a 40-page document called <em>Precious in my Sight.</em></mark></a>
<em>(Transgender flag on grass. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)</em>
