Statement on Supreme Court judgment on the meaning of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010

To sign the statement on behalf of your centre/network/group, please use this form.

We are leaders of centres, research groups and networks, of scholarship, teaching, learning, and expertise in gender, feminist, women’s and sexuality studies across the UK. We are dismayed by the recent Supreme Court judgment on the meaning of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010.

This judgment, which states that ‘sex’ for the purposes of the Act refers to the ‘sex of a person at birth’, was handed down after a refusal to hear any testimony from legal experts on gender reassignment or from trans, nonbinary, or intersex people. We do not believe it provides more legal clarity on the relationship between gender and sex. Instead, it adds more confusion and gives more potential for transphobic opportunism and harm in an already fraught area.

We are also deeply concerned by responses to the judgment by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and organisations such as the British Transport Police. These responses have already used the judgment to declare the exclusion of trans people from facilities and services, and to align policies with ‘biological sex’. Such responses will expose trans, nonbinary/gender-nonconforming, and intersex people to forced outing, deny their lived realities, and limit their ability to participate in society.

We reject the framing in the media and in public discourse that puts women, and/or feminists, at odds with trans people. This is especially the case in relation to the inclusion of trans women in women’s spaces. Womanhood is lived; it is not biologically given or legally bestowed. The rights of trans people and the rights of cisgender women are inherently connected. As academic experts on sex and gender, we do not agree that biological sex is ‘self-explanatory.’ As feminists, we see the weaponisation of ‘women’s safety’ to vilify and exclude trans people as shameful.

We view this judgment and the damaging responses to it as part of a broader trend of backsliding on equality, which will harm all marginalised groups and expose all gender nonconforming people to exclusionary violence, including cisgender-nonconforming women. Discrimination does not exist in isolation and the stripping away of legal protections threatens us all. Everyone’s bodily autonomy is put at risk by the anti-scientific elevation of ‘biological sex’ as a self-evident category, which will ultimately be policed by intensified regulation of the borders of gender expression.  

Our support for trans rights, and in particular for trans women’s inclusion in women’s spaces, and the rights of trans, intersex and gender-nonconforming people to access safe and inclusive healthcare and sanitary facilities, is steadfast. We are proudly trans-inclusive and will remain so.

1. Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York
2. Gender Research Group, Newcastle University
3. Centre for Transforming Sexuality & Gender, University of Brighton
4. Sussex Centre for Human Rights Research, University of Sussex
5. Gender Inequality in Education group, University of York
6. Centre for Gender Studies, Lancaster University
7. Feminist Media and Cultural Studies Research Group, Lancaster University
8. Queer Disability Studies Network
9. Abolition Feminism for Ending Sexual Violence collective, Newcastle University
10. Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture, University of Manchester
11. BiGS (Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality) Birkbeck, University of London
12. qUCL research centre and network, University College London
13. Gender and Feminisms Research Network, University College London
14. Sex, Sexualities and Sexual Harm Research Group, Leeds Beckett University
15. CLOCK, The Community Legal Outreach Collaboration, Keele University
16. Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence, University of Sussex
17. Queer Judgments Project Network
18. Centre for Gender Studies, University of Sussex
19. SexGen North Network
20. Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, University of Leeds
21. Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick
22. Feminism, Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster, University of Warwick
23. SunGen, Sunderland University
24. Feminist Legal Research and Action Network, University of Liverpool
25. UCL LGBTQ+ Equality Steering Group
26. Out@UCL
27. UCL Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity
28. Gender Research Group, Nottingham Trent University
29. Strathclyde Feminist Research Network, University of Strathclyde
30. Gender and Sexualities Network, University of Stirling
31. Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship, University of Essex
32. Feminist Gender Equality Network
33. Gender Research Network, Coventry University
34. Histories of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Identity research group, Manchester Metropolitan University
35. LGBT+ Advisory Group, University of Oxford
36. British Educational Research Association Sexualities and Gender Special Interest Group
37. Centre for Gender in Politics, Queen’s University Belfast
38. Pluralising Social Reproduction Approaches Network
39. queer.ed, University of Edinburgh
40. Intersex Research Network, University of Huddersfield
41. LGBTQI+ Network, University of Lincoln
42. Social SciencEs in Endometriosis Network, Birmingham City University
43. Centre for Gender History, University of Glasgow
44. Centre for Women's, Gender and Queer History, University of Oxford
45. MA Gender Studies, University of East Anglia
46. Feminists@Law, University of Kent
47. MSc Applied Gender Studies, University of Strathclyde
48. STAIGS Institute of Gender Studies, University of St Andrews
49. Nonbinary Maths Project, University of Manchester
50. Feminist Political Economy section of the Political Economy Centre, University of Manchester
51. Gender and Feminist Theory Research Group, University of Birmingham
52. Sexual Knowledge Unit, University of Exeter
53. Gender, Sexuality and Law Cluster, Keele University
54. SGS: Sex, Gender and Sexualities Research Centre, University of Surrey
55. Sexuality and Gender Studies Network, University of Birmingham
56. Gender Research Centre, University of Bristol
57. Centre for Feminist Research, Goldsmiths, University of London
58. Insurgent Knowledges educational collective
59. FemQuant collective
60. Cities and Community Research Group, Nottingham Trent University
61. Seminar Series in the History of Sexuality, Institute of Historical Research
62. Gender and Law at Durham, Durham University
63. Global Research on Gender, Sexuality, and Identity (GROGSI Lab), University of Chichester
64. Centre for Psychosocial Research, Birkbeck, University of London
65. The Centre for Research into Gender and Culture in Society (GENCAS), Swansea University  
66. Gender and Education Association
67. INQYR UK Regional Network
68. LGBTQ+ Health and Well-Being Research Group, Nottingham Trent University
69. Gender Research Network, University of Sheffield
70. Cccq LGBTQIA+ staff network, Canterbury Christ Church University
71. Queer@Kings, Kings College London