On 16th April 2025, five crusty old judges in the UK Supreme Court decided what a woman is (in the context of the Equality Act 2010). Hard luck, fellow women, it seems that our biology is our destiny. The Supreme Court ruled that the definition of a woman is based on ‘biological sex’ (an unclear term in itself) and therefore excludes trans women. How bloody depressing. The court didn’t hear from a single trans person during its deliberations. The case was brought by an organisation called For Women Scotland, a self-described ‘gender critical’ group, against the Scottish government. Their success is a boost for bigots and the far-right and will do nothing to help protect the rights of women.
Mould-addled multi-millionaire, JK Rowling, celebrated this attack on trans rights—and the rights of all women not to be defined by their anatomy—by sipping cocktails on her £150 million yacht. Woman of the People, Rowling, donated £70,000 towards the court case as she is a committed transphobe who spends a lot of time bullying trans people on social media, including trans TV presenter India Willoughby.
The dregs of UK society hailed it as a victory for their anti-trans views, despite the judges stating that it should not be seen as such. A bigot named Jess Gill, described on X/Twitter as founder of an organisation called Women Safety UK, hailed the ruling as winning “the battle against trans ideology”, and then went on to make a racist assertion about the supposed dangers of immigrants to UK women.
The odious Allison Pearson who writes for the Daily Telegraph newspaper is now arguing that “anti-white racism has been embedded into the public sector in the same way as trans rights”, pushing her bigoted advantage. This is how it goes. There will always be another enemy threatening our safety, an enemy decided by the real antagonists that hold power in our society. We need to reject this divisive ruling class tactic. Women are oppressed, but not by trans people or migrants. Attacking trans people does nothing to resolve women’s oppression. Women and trans people both face oppression under capitalism and we must unite to fight our joint oppression.
The state getting to define who you are, for the purposes of excluding a vilified minority from public life, is not a good or progressive thing. I don’t want oppressed minorities to face further oppression, and as a cisgender woman, I don’t want to be judged on how stereotypically feminine I look whenever I need to piss in public. I don’t want my trans sisters to be judged like that, or made to feel that they aren’t safe or welcome in public spaces because of who they are.
The law now appears to legitimise the harassment of trans and non-gender conforming people. We have already seen cases of butch women thrown out of women’s toilets for not adhering to feminine stereotypes. Leading ‘gender critical’ activist, Maya Forstater, has posted on X/Twitter that if women “make extreme efforts to look like a man” as part of their “life choices” then it is their own fault if they are excluded from women’s toilets. The idea that women should conform to sexist stereotypes is hardly feminist or progressive. The people who decide to police women’s spaces on the basis of feminine stereotypes are going to be bigots, for who else would bother? I am not looking forward to ‘proving’ my ‘biological femaleness’ to the bigoted toilet police. Do I flash them, or what?
This policing of gender is set to intensify. The British Transport Police were very quick to announce that trans women will now be searched by male officers. In effect, women deemed ‘not feminine enough’ will be at the mercy of male police officers, who do not have a great track record on protecting women’s rights. I can imagine the excuse “I thought she was trans” being used as justification for the mistreatment of cis women, as well as our trans sisters. Gender policing does not help cis women. No one has won any rights due to this ruling.
Biology is Not Destiny
Feminists have long fought against the idea that our biology is our destiny. Narrowly defining womanhood by a person’s reproductive functions is regressive and paves the way for further regressive reforms that affect all women. If women are defined by our biology then we are baby-makers and child-rearers first and foremost, with a sideline in household drudgery. These crude biological essentialist definitions of womanhood underpin our historic oppression under capitalism. Women as subordinate bodies to make and raise the next generation of workers. It is no coincidence that some of those pushing biological definitions of womanhood are also scaremongering about declining birth rates, and advocating that women return to the home.
This is one reason why the bigots hate trans people and want to legislate them out of existence. Trans people do not, and cannot, conform to their baby-making machine stereotypes. The increased recognition and acceptance of trans people in society is contributing to the breakdown of the ideology of the bourgeois family. This is something that we should celebrate. The bourgeois family is oppressive to women. The best way to fight for women’s rights is to fight just as strongly for trans rights; our rights are not in conflict.
The right to decide who we are in our own lives is under attack. Transphobes have already attacked the principle of Gillick Competence, as it relates to trans youths, through the courts. The Cass Review (an “independent” review of gender-related care for trans and gender questioning kids commissioned by NHS England) has led to the banning of puberty blockers for trans kids. When they’re done with trans people, who will be next? That some on the British left support this regressive shit is deeply depressing. If only all that energy spent attacking trans people was spent on fighting against austerity, against the exploitation of low-paid migrant women workers, or for socialised childcare.
Unpleasant Transphobic Bedfellows
This legal attack on trans rights has to be seen in the wider global context. In the USA, Trump has repeatedly targeted transgender and non-binary people with a series of executive orders since he returned to office. In one executive order, Trump asserted that “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex.” The fact that this is not remotely true has not been a problem for him. It is the rhetoric of moral panic that is important.
Trans people in the USA are being portrayed as a threat to children and legislated against on that basis. Republican-led states have continued to roll back trans rights, banning trans kids from playing sports and removing their right to gender-affirming health care. Schools have been banned from supporting children who are socially transitioning and some states have banned teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ identities, history or healthcare.
Billionaire owner of social media site X/Twitter, Elon Musk, has referred to transness as a “mind virus” that needs “to die”, despite having a trans daughter. Musk has disgustingly said that this ‘virus’ has ‘killed’ his very-much-alive daughter. Musk also likes to opine about the declining birth rate, and is listened to on account of being revoltingly rich.
In Hungary, legislators backed by the far-right prime minister Viktor Orban have voted to ban LGBTQ+ gatherings, as well as legally recognising only two sexes. Again, the justification for this is to “prioritise the protection of children’s physical, mental and moral development”. Orban’s government has also blocked same-sex couples from adopting children and banned the mention of LGBTQ+ issues in schools. This is not progressive. This doesn’t advance women’s rights. Does the fact that this is being done to LGBTQ+ people by far-right politicians not cause some discomfort to the ostensibly more liberal UK anti trans brigade? Does the “we must protect the children from these deviants” argument not ring any alarm bells? The dehumanization of trans people as a ‘virus’?
We Are The Resistance
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, trans people and their many supporters have taken to the streets in their thousands. 25-30,000 people marched in London, 2,000 in Edinburgh and thousands more in towns and cities across the UK. I attended a protest of 500 in Manchester with my daughter and the mood was militant and defiant. National trade unions issued statements expressing solidarity and urged their members to join the demonstrations.
UNISON, one of the biggest public sector unions in the UK, recently passed a motion unopposed at its Women’s Conference affirming that trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary people exist. The motion explained that “trans issues are union issues, because UNISON has always fought for marginalised workers”. Organised workers will be important in resisting the oppressive implementation of this legislation in workplaces, and supporting our trans colleagues facing harassment and discrimination.
The Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) is leading a fightback against LGBTQ+ discrimination in U.S. schools, recently ratifying a new contract with Chicago Public Schools which codifies LGBTQ+ protections. The new provisions, voted for by 97% of voting union members, include gender-affirming healthcare for staff, a trained Gender Support Coordinator in every school, codified protections for chosen names and pronouns and a mandate that every school upholds inclusive curriculum standards and supports any student-led Gender and Sexuality Alliances. “We are the counterbalance, we are the resistance,” said CTU President Stacy Davis Gates. This union action is an important blueprint for how we can resist attacks on trans rights in the UK.
A handful of posh judges don’t get to tell us who we are. A multimillionaire bigot on her yacht can’t decide where people piss. Populist right wing leaders can’t stop us playing sports or gathering to fight back against them. The working class, which includes the vast majority of trans people, has the power to defend trans rights. We must do this through our unions, in our workplaces, on the streets and in our communities and make our voices heard. The massive protests over Easter Weekend are a very good start. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people exist. No Supreme Court bastard can change that reality.