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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought throughout her career for women’s rights — “on the basis of sex.” But since “sex” merged into “gender” three decades ago, the entire area of sex-based rights has become blurred. In the United Kingdom, they have suddenly become unblurred and — legally — crystal clear.
In a landmark ruling, the UK Supreme Court established last week that the words “sex” and “woman” solely refer to biological sex when it comes to equality laws and language.
The implications of this landmark ruling will be felt not only in the UK but worldwide. It is the first time a legal ruling has reaffirmed the sex-based rights we were in danger of losing altogether.
Sex is binary and immutable. Women’s rights derive from biological factors and their reproductive roles. The UK Supreme Court has looked at absurdities such as “pregnant men” and “male lesbians” and said, “No.”
What changes can we expect to ensue from this ruling? First, the UK transport police, who were until last week insisting that male officers who “identify” as women can strip-search women, have immediately reversed their position.
Cases involving female nurses objecting to being expected to undress alongside male colleagues who “identify” as women are now likely to be swiftly resolved. These nurses will now be entitled to a single-sex locker room.
More widely, I hope the ruling bolsters efforts to stop schools teaching kids that some people are “born in the wrong body” and/or might benefit from pediatric gender medicine (“gender affirming care”).
It’s not possible to change sex. And the growing move to protect women’s and girls’ athletics from the incursions of males who “identify” as female will likely gather steam, too.
The UK Supreme Court’s detailed, 88-page ruling strips away the entire façade of “identifying” as the opposite sex. Gender identity doctrine is a regressive, misogynistic set of beliefs that is pitted against women’s rights.
The diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” is always based on sexist stereotypes that many of us old-school feminists thought we had eradicated in the 1980s.
“He likes wearing dresses and playing with Barbies.” “She likes keeping her hair short and enjoys roughhousing with the boys.” So what? We should be cherishing those “gender nonconforming” kids and encouraging their individuality, not sending them off to a gender clinic.
They may grow up gay or lesbian. That’s perfectly fine. They need happy, flourishing gay and lesbian role models, not puberty-blocking hormone treatments that derail their development.
Once you accept it’s impossible to change sex, everything falls into place. Except for those who see this ruling as an attack on their rights.
We are hearing distraught reactions from those quarters. One wrote on X that the ruling had left her “heartbroken.” Another wrote: “Today, for the first time, I am scared about walking out of my front door.”
But the real misfortune is that such activists have been encouraged to see themselves as part of a civil rights movement in the first place. Indeed, “no civil rights movement in history has asked for rights as another class of people,” says the feminist philosopher Jane Clare Jones. She could not be more spot-on!
Sex-based rights matter to gays and lesbians. Sexual orientation is about whether you’re attracted to men, women, or both.
How people “identify” is neither here nor there. Kate Harris and I founded the LGB Alliance in 2019 because legacy gay rights organizations like the UK Stonewall, GLAAD, HRC, and ACLU had abandoned us. We were the first LGB organization in the world to reject gender identity doctrine.
We intervened in Wednesday’s UK Supreme Court case in support of sex-based rights — and the judges totally agreed.
When I read in the ruling that being forced to admit straight men who “identify” as women into lesbian spaces renders the concept of sexual orientation “meaningless “ — and results in an “inevitable loss of autonomy and dignity for lesbians” — I wept with relief. We had been seen. Finally!
The political polarization of sex and gender issues in the United States surely has to end. Whatever people may think of President Trump, his executive order stating that there are two sexes was ground-breaking and essential.
Biological sex is key to women’s rights — and to the rights of lesbians and gay men. Yesterday, the UK Supreme Court showed it understood that. I hope this message now reaches every corner of the world.
Bev Jackson is the co-founder of the LGB Alliance; @BevJacksonAuth on X and Substack