The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has today ruled that individuals who identify as transgender women should not be legally defined as women.
Handing down the court’s judgement addressing whether sex-based protections should only apply to people who were born female, Lord Hodge said that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act referred to biological sex and not to acquired gender, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/16/supreme-court-rule-trans-women/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> the <em>Daily Telegraph</em>.
“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 judge told the court.
“But we counsel against reading this judgement as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.
“The Equality Act 2010 gives transgender people protection not only against discrimination through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment in their acquired gender.”
The ruling came in response to a long-running legal dispute between the activist group For Women Scotland and the Scottish government over whether trans people with gender recognition certificates (GRC) identifying their gender as female were considered as having the sex of a woman. For Women Scotland argued that sex-based protections should only apply to people born female.
The ruling also follows years of heated debate, during which the issue of trans rights has grown exponentially to seemingly dominate public debate and media coverage.
It has seen the Church speak out both at the global and national levels, with the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales <a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/catholic-bishops-of-england-and-wales-in-absolute-harmony-with-vatican-against-gender-ideology/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">stating</mark></a> that they are in “absolute harmony” with the Vatican against gender ideology.
The ruling also comes at the same time that is has been revealed that the first baby has been born in UK using a transplanted womb, raising concerns about the implications of such medical and technological developments.
While there have been reported cases of trans men – who were born female and with a uterus – giving birth, so far there are no confirmed cases of a transgender woman giving birth through a womb transplant. However, the possibility is reportedly being explored and discussed in medical circles.
<a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/first-uk-baby-born-using-transplanted-womb/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><em><strong>RELATED: First baby born in UK using transplanted womb</strong></em></mark></a>
<em>Photo: Susan Smith (left) and Marion Calder, directors of For Women Scotland speak to the media outside the Supreme Court in London, England, 16 April 2025. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.)</em>
