Today (26 November), the Supreme Court began a hearing to determine what a woman is.
The ruling, brought by For Women Scotland campaigners, will determine how transgender individuals should be treated legal, and what the actual process of gender identification means.
The landmark case could have a wide range of implications for the single-sex space in Britain.
The question is whether someone with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), who recognizes her gender as female, should be considered a woman in the context of the 2010 Equality Act. It will examine what “sex”, as defined by law, really means.
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 allows people to obtain a GRC that states that it is a “change of sex” for all purposes.
The Equality Act 2010 outlined the protections for different groups against discrimination, including “sex”, “gender reassignment” and other protected characteristics.
The current hearing will not affect the law, but it may impact how public services and other bodies are run.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission acknowledged the difficulty of the legal definition of “legal sex” and said: “We are looking forward to the Supreme Court judgment which will provide an authoritative interpretation of existing law on this subject.”
We believe that there are serious problems with the Equality Act’s practical application in relation to the definition. It creates inconsistencies that undermine the Equality Act’s proper functioning and threaten the rights and interests for women and people attracted to the same gender.
She stated that the challenges facing the same-sex community include the desire to maintain single-sex areas and the right of individuals attracted to the same-sex to form groups.
Falkner said: “We believe that clarity is important for everyone affected by these issues to understand and exercise their rights properly.
It is unlikely that the Equality Act was passed with these consequences in mind, but they have grown more severe since then as a result of societal changes. We, as the equality regulator, consider this a situation that is utterly unsatisfactory, and urge Parliament to act urgently.
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