The United Kingdom, UK, Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the definition of a woman under the country’s equality law refers to biological sex, The New York Times reports.
The British court, according to the newspaper, declared that transgender women do not fall within the legal definition of women under the country’s equality legislation.
The Deputy President of the court, Lord Hodge, made this known in a summary of the decision.
He noted that the unanimous decision of “this court is that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological women and biological sex.”
“We counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another; it is not,” he added.
He, however, said the ruling “does not cause disadvantage to transgender people,” stressing that they have protections under anti-discrimination and equality laws.
Media Talk Africa reports that the landmark judgment follows a yearslong legal battle over whether trans women can be regarded as female under the 2010 law, which aims to prevent discrimination on the basis of gender, sexuality, race, and other protected characteristics.
