A five judge panel of the UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in UK law refer to a ‘biological woman’ and ‘biological sex’ [1].
This means transgender persons who are born male but identify as female will no longer be regarded as women for the purposes of law.
In an 88-page ruling, the Court said that the concept of sex is binary and “a person is either a woman or a man”.
“Although the word ‘biological’ does not appear in this definition, the ordinary meaning of those plain and unambiguous words corresponds with the biological characteristics that make an individual a man or a woman.”
Any other interpretation would make equality law “incoherent and impracticable”.
The ruling was welcomed as a “victory for common sense”, by campaigners, while prominent scientist, Richard Dawkins, applauded the decision saying the law had finally “caught up” with science.