Australian female politicians, media personalities and the CEO of a female-only social media app joined Sky News on Thursday to discuss the landmark ruling by Britain’s highest court, which ruled only biological women can be defined as women under equality laws.
Campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) launched legal action in 2018 against guidance issued by the devolved Scottish government which accompanied a law at the time designed to increase the amount of women on public sector boards to 50 per cent.
The legislation said a trans woman with a gender recognition certificate was legally a woman. FWS, which was backed by lesbian rights groups, lost its case in the Scottish courts.
However, the British Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favour of FWS on appeal.
The ruling means trans women will not be allowed into spaces designated as women-only, which could include change rooms, single-sex refuges and some hospital wards.
Sall Grover, the founder and CEO of Giggle, a female-only social media app, said the outcome of the long-running legal battle made her incredibly hopeful for the future of women’s rights.
“We finally have someone say that men are not women,” Ms Grover told Sky News host Chris Kenny.
“One powerful institution actually confirms reality, it’s just so welcome and makes you incredibly hopeful, not only for women’s rights, but I am very hopeful that people who are watching will start to engage with the issue a little more.
“It’s never been about any kind of phobia, it is literally about the fact that there is a truth and there is a reality.”
Liberal Senator Claire Chandler said the decision by the five most senior United Kingdom judges came after a decade of “activists trying to alter what the word woman means”.
“This judgement has made it abundantly clear that when anti-discrimination legislation, when equality legislation, was being written decades ago, the intention was that this legislation would protect biological rights of women and girls, that is what this court in the UK has affirmed,” she told Sky News host Peta Credlin.
“It’s really only in the last decade that we’ve seen so many activists trying to alter what the word woman means and that’s what has fundamentally undermined women’s sex based rights.”
Senator Chandler said it was “an incredible decision” by the UK’s top court.
News Corp’s Europe Correspondent, Sophie Elsworth, said there was widespread celebration across the UK, with supporters popping champagne and some people celebrating in the streets.
“This is a decision that is going to result in public bodies across the UK furiously rushing to rip up their documentation and rules around gender-based rights in things such as prisons, hospitals, around sporting competition… this is a real protection for women” she told Credlin.
“Many would argue this is a victory for common sense, women can safely go back to their safe zones in hospitals, sporting groups and so forth and have the rights back that many thought were taken away.”
Also joining Credlin was Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming, who on Thursday was sensationally appointed as the party’s representative to the western suburbs.
“This was largely led by women on the left, this is just a matter of common sense and reality and I am so proud of all those women,” Ms Deeming said.
Ms Deeming added the leader of the Victorian opposition, Brad Battin, “has always been consistent in this area”.
“He, like all of us, doesn’t have a problem with people living their lives as they want to, but there are only two sexes and that is the position.”
