Outside the Supreme Court, Susan Smith of For Women Scotland says: "What our politicians need to get their heads around is this is the law.

"They need to stop putting faulty guidance into schools and hospitals."

"There is going to be an ongoing fight," she says, adding: "Now we have a really concrete basis for going forward."

Frightening stuff. This isn't the end either, these TERF groups are going to use this ruling (which it looks to me like they just read the language of the Equality Act and clarified it according to intent of the drafters, who probably did not consider this) as basis to start mandating anti-trans legislation.

It's eroding protections for a vulnerable group, ffs.

So unbelievably saddening 😢

My only silver lining to this is that as they move on to lesbians as the next target, JKR will find her Terf alliance breaking up as the butch lesbians within it realise they also don't qualify as woman enough for rights.

In any case

This is a judgement made almost entirely on hypothetical situations. All the way down. The puberty blocker ban because "what if there was harm?" Now this.

Changes should be made based on harm mitigation. Not based on hypotheticals that have not yet been tested.

Feels like a slippery slope for minorities in general. Let alone men who are championing this judgement which says in baseline that ALL men are ALWAYS a threat to all women.

Can't get my head around my head seeing that ruling, just utterly frustrating and saddening that people in power can do something like this :/

Utterly bleak. It's Easter but it's also Christmas for the worst people you could ever have the misfortune of engaging with.

Hugs and support to all my trans & non-binary acquaintances up north, including the ones I've never met.

Heartbreaking 😔

Horrible to see that the Supreme Court only thinks that cis women can be women. The world is regressing after so much we've accomplished.

As a biological woman I feel so embarrassed by this brand of 'feminism' that wishes to cause more harm to such a vulnerable group. Plus emboldening people to harass women about their gender identity more is just playing into patriarchal beauty standards?

What a cruel world, much love and solidarity with trans people.

On 16/04/2025 at 13:31, J00prstar said:

My only silver lining to this is that as they move on to lesbians as the next target, JKR will find her Terf alliance breaking up as the butch lesbians within it realise they also don't qualify as woman enough for rights.

100%, the rancid cult won’t stop until nobody bar white men have rights. Joanne would practically have us all in a Handmaid’s Tale simulation where woman have to provide offspring to prove they are female if she had her way. And the cult are all harping on about a “victory” like it’s an ending or their goal but they won’t stop. Anyone in a minority group who has been a part of this should be ashamed and they can’t complain if they end up losing some of their rights too.

And that’s the crux, it’s never just trans people, there are intersex people that would by this “legal” definition not actually be a woman. It’s a very very slippery slope for minorities to just be denied things legally because some horrid cult is loud and persistent enough. We’ve got so much far right hate in the world how long is it before this precedent being set means harm for other LGBTQ+ people? I mean whilst it’s different, we’re already seeing disabled people lose benefits. Both of these situations just scare me how quickly any minority, including us, could just lose a lot at the snap of a finger.

For the last few years, people have been trying to catch out politicians (mostly Labour politicians) by asking whether a woman can have a penis. Despite their triumphalism over the Supreme Court verdict, the answer to that question is now Yes. A post-surgery trans man has a penis yet, according to the ruling, is still a woman.

As far back as the 1970s, trans women were accepted for who they were. Wendy (formerly Walter) Carlos was one of the pioneers of electronic music in that decade and her gender reassignment was just accepted. She was probably more accepted for who she was than gay men were at the time. This verdict is a massive step backwards.

Agreed - this is a massive step backwards, it is going to cause more upset and fear amongst an already marginalised and discriminated group of society, and is a direct threat to their dignity, rights and safety.

And for what? The deceitful way in which this case was brought, under the guise of "protecting womens rights", when the true motives were clearly to further weaponise growing levels of transphobia in our discourse, and exclude transgender people from participating as equals in society.

This is an emotive and sensitive debate, and I understand that it may get heated but please be mindful when posting here of the rules of polite and reasoned debate, and try to avoid posting deliberately inflammatory or offensive remarks or they will be removed.

Solidarity with, and hugs for all transgender/nonbinary members of the site.

13 hours ago, Suedehead2 said:

For the last few years, people have been trying to catch out politicians (mostly Labour politicians) by asking whether a woman can have a penis. Despite their triumphalism over the Supreme Court verdict, the answer to that question is now Yes. A post-surgery trans man has a penis yet, according to the ruling, is still a woman.

As far back as the 1970s, trans women were accepted for who they were. Wendy (formerly Walter) Carlos was one of the pioneers of electronic music in that decade and her gender reassignment was just accepted. She was probably more accepted for who she was than gay men were at the time. This verdict is a massive step backwards.

Even just 10 years ago you had Theresa May of all people saying trans women are women and nobody batted an eyelid, nobody argued against it. In the space of under a decade, right wing lunatics have made up all these problems and somehow it’s all snowballed into this. I genuinely do blame Joanne for her utter utter bile on a constant basis, because she’s one of the few people with a big enough platform to have the reach to influence like this, especially with the money she has. Her and her kind are incredibly privileged to have their only worry be about trans people just existing, when there’s a cost of living crisis with a lot of the country struggling to even merely get by, and the world is falling apart around us with an ongoing genocide.

JK Rowling is 100% to blame for fuelling this, what a rancid pathetic excuse of a human being. Trans females are far more compassionate (which is seen as a womanly trait supposedly) than she is.

I was a huge huge huge Harry Potter fan, adored the books, loved the films, the theme parks in Florida made me cry I loved them so much... she has utterly ruined the whole thing for me. I know it's nothing compared to what trans people are suffering of course but she is doing more harm to everything not just trans people. Got to love Nichola Coughlan for saying she wouldn't touch the new Harry Potter series with a ten foot bargepole. I'll be giving it a miss too.

I’ve been struggling to find the appropriate words but my silence is becoming deafening.

I’ve said JK Terfling was a piece of shit c**t since 2014 so on her as far as I’m concerned y’all are late. She donated 7 figures to the Unionists, and had a few choice things to say at the time. Clearly the writing was on the way that she was a) socially conservative and b) a wrong un

I had hoped that the UK gov would have had done something by now. Seems that was wishful thinking. Scotlands attempts to introduce Self-ID seems to have been the real momentum driver here (and since Scotland started the process numerous non-English speaking countries have successfully implemented it without issue including Germany who did so after the UK gov blocked Scotlands law - which I think says it all. Conservative American money talks, but it only knows English).

The UK has for a decade been constantly taking the wrong path, my hope was that under Labour we’d start to find our way back to the correct path but it feels like we’re on the same path but now we’ve a torch to help us see. The ruling technically doesn’t change any law but it does alter guidelines in a way that is a net loss for millions. Not just the vulnerable targets but the collateral damage will be huge. A woman with PCOS who has some facial hair will be accused and harassed for example. The atmosphere of policing this will embolden in Karen’s the length and breadth of the country is what every single one of us should be scared of because they’re not gonna stop now that they’ve made the lives of 0,5m trans people immeasurably more difficult.

On 20/04/2025 at 11:12, Liаm said:

Even just 10 years ago you had Theresa May of all people saying trans women are women and nobody batted an eyelid, nobody argued against it. In the space of under a decade, right wing lunatics have made up all these problems and somehow it’s all snowballed into this. I genuinely do blame Joanne for her utter utter bile on a constant basis, because she’s one of the few people with a big enough platform to have the reach to influence like this, especially with the money she has. Her and her kind are incredibly privileged to have their only worry be about trans people just existing, when there’s a cost of living crisis with a lot of the country struggling to even merely get by, and the world is falling apart around us with an ongoing genocide.

I keep having to remind myself of May's statement as so many people now act as if it never happened, including almost all Tories.

One small note of silver in this is that the TERFS' outright glee and gloating at this change is turning people with low knowledge or who might otherwise be neutral or tacitly support their position, off them.

It's become very apparent in an undeniable way from their reactions that protecting women might not have been quite as high on their agenda as using that as an excuse to PUNISH and shame/hurt trans people.

I've been visiting older relatives this week & generally they've found it appalling after how as soon as this change was announced the chat immediately changed to stuff like strip searching and the like.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crldey0z00ro

What a spineless, unprincipled shit.

Disappointing from him (maybe shouldn't be surprised but I remember Starmer giving a compassionate answer on the subject in one of the debates last year, which felt somewhat refreshing during the toxic culture wars that were taking place) and also Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson, who has come out today saying that trans women should use toilets according to their biological sex...

a worrying message for such a vulnerable group - once again as a cis woman I can't say I think twice about a woman's biological sex when they come to use a cubicle 🙃 some compassion really wouldn't go amiss.