(16 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
London – 16 April 2025
1. Various of For Women Scotland, the women’s rights group that brought the legal challenge, and supporters celebrating the verdict
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Smith, For Women Scotland co-director:
"Everyone knows what sex is and you can’t change it. So it’s the common, it’s common sense, basic common sense and the fact that we have been down a rabbit hole where people have tried to deny science and to deny reality and hopefully this will now see us back to, back to reality."
3. Various of supporter holding banner in front of the court, reading (English) "Woman are born, not some bloke with a form"
4. SOUNDBITE (English) supporter who wants to be named as Grahame Park Girl:
"Relief and yeah, joy. It’s exactly what we were hoping for. The Supreme Court would recognize that women are female, biological females, not men who have filled out form and got certificate."
5. Close of banner reading (English) "Woman are born, not some bloke with a form"
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Eileen Gallagher, Chair of Trustees for LGB Alliance:
"And we just needed clarity in all of this. And I think the Supreme Court’s done their job brilliantly. They have got a lot into a huge amount of detail about it. But it means that woman means a biological woman, man means a biological man. It doesn’t mean any rolling back of rights for trans people. It really doesn’t. They’re protected under the Equalities Act and the Gender Recognition Act. So everyone wins. It really is a win for everyone, although I think the opposition might feel for a while that they’ve lost. I don’t think it is. I think it’s a victory for common sense."
7. Court sign at the entrance
STORYLINE:
Feminist groups celebrated outside the U.K. Supreme Court on Wednesday after it ruled that the U.K. equalities law defines a woman as someone born biologically female, rejecting the Scottish government’s argument that it includes transgender women.
Justice Patrick Hodge said five judges at the court had ruled unanimously that "the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex."
The ruling means that a transgender person with a certificate that recognizes them as female should not be considered a woman for equality purposes.
But the court added that its ruling "does not remove protection from trans people," who are “protected from discrimination on the ground of gender reassignment.”
The case stems from a 2018 law passed by the Scottish Parliament stating that there should be a 50% female representation on the boards of Scottish public bodies.
Transgender women were to be included in meeting the quota.
For Women Scotland (FWS), the women’s rights group that brought the legal challenge, argued that the Scottish officials’ redefinition of woman went beyond parliament’s powers.
But Scottish officials then issued new guidance stating that the definition of woman included someone with a gender recognition certificate.
FWS successfully sought to overturn that.
The group had said the outcome of the case could have consequences in Scotland, England and Wales for sex-based rights as well as single-sex facilities such as toilets, hospital wards and prisons.
"Everyone knows what sex is and you can’t change it," said Susan Smith, co-director of For Women Scotland.
The challenge was rejected by a court in 2022, but the group was granted permission last year to take its case to the Supreme Court.
AP Video by Kwiyeon Ha
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