On 16th April 2025 the UK Supreme Court handed down a ruling regarding transgender people’s position with regards to the Equality Act’s definition of sex. Under the act trans people are to be regarded as whatever their original birth certificate states.
What this actually means when the rubber hits the road is yet to be determined. EHRC have issued what they refer to as an “update” with a heavy emphasis on the interim nature of that. The guidance within is heavy handed, as expected, but not final and could see wide reaching changes to it before the end of Summer.
It suggests that trans women should always use men’s bathrooms except for when they shouldn’t, but also that they shouldn’t ever use women’s bathrooms and that there should always be provision for us even if we can’t use either of the two usually provided. The inverse applies for transgender men and non-binary people don’t exist according to our Government, so are simply not included.
It is a mess and has caused equal parts outrage and alarm online
To understand how to survive, resist and flourish first we need to know what we’re up against. Put simply what we know is that this ruling changed the comparator for transgender people. So instead of being comparable to any other woman, a transgender woman is now comparable to a cisgender man under the Equality Act and vice versa for transgender men.
We also know that the EHRC will be issuing heavy-handed statutory guidance further down the line. This guidance will act sort of a statement of intention for how the EHRC are likely to act in any relevant case. So whereas its not mandatory to follow the guidance, it isn’t a bad idea to have them as back-up in court by doing so.
All of this means that you are now more likely to be asked to leave a bathroom by staff for being “the wrong sex” even if you’re cisgender. If you are cisgender and feel safe and confident enough to kick off about it go nuts! However if you are transgender the best practice will be to simply leave as quickly as you can.
Don’t interact or engage with anyone yelling at you, simply finish your business, gather your things and leave. You may want to consider putting your phone’s camera on to record as you do for your safety. But be aware this can absolutely escalate bigots further if they believe they are being filmed.
I am a loudmouth and would absolutely find it hard to behave so small in such a big situation too. But I promise you with all the rational thought in my head that there is absolutely no sense getting into an altercation with other venue-goers or staff. Your safety is far more important than whatever sick burns you are cooking up for just this moment.
If a patron asks you to leave, you can simply ignore them. You could risk reporting them to staff first for antisocial behaviour or harassment however this is a risk and could still result in you being asked to leave by staff. If you are asked to leave by staff you must do so, refusal will mean you are trespassing and trespassing means that the police can intervene.
Their job will be to see you out or remove you by force if necessary. They do not care about anything other than protecting the property owner’s rights when called out for trespassers. They will have no qualms at all grabbing hold of you and dragging you out unceremoniously and should you further kick off, may even opt to detain and charge you with a public order offence.
Do not under any circumstances hand them your tranny card. I know, it sounds like a joke but I have genuinely seen a prominent trans org promoting a card for trans people to carry around. The document, supposedly informed by a prominent transgender barrister, cites Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights and claims kicking us out constitutes a breach.
I don’t agree with this interpretation but even if it were the case – outside of the bathroom is not a court room. Everything I’ve said before the “tranny card” line applies just the same and absolutely nobody out there is going to be persuaded by your homemade laminated tranny card. Do not engage. Just leave. Get yourself to safety as soon as possible.
Other than that, continue using spaces as normal. You are free to do so until asked to leave. You are not committing any criminal offence by doing so. This area of law is civil law and is fought in the civil courts by making arguments about what you think the law says. The cost of doing so is time, money and dignity – not your freedom.
If you do encounter any problems in spaces let us and your community know about it. You can reach us on Bluesky or via email @ [email protected].
Building a database and providing community access to this kind of information is going to be vital in pushing back on pressure to comply while also helping to keep each other safe. A public facing database of trans friendly organisations might seem like a good idea however could fast become a hitlist for bigots to vexatiously litigate against.
Join, support and concoct your own resistance efforts! There are many campaigns and other efforts in the works to overturn this decision. The Good Law Project appear to be pursuing a method via the European Court of Human Rights and there will be other legal challenges worth supporting in future too. I for one, however, believe we will have much better success in Parliament rather than the courts.
Put simply; judiciaries around the world don’t know anything at all about trans issues. They are ruling within the narrow scopes of what they do know which is generally built on centuries of bad ideas about sex and gender so deeply ingrained they have become immutable truths and simple “common sense” despite being, as the BMA recently put it, scientifically illiterate.
The Judiciary absolutely do have the power and privilege to take the time to actually bother to learn about these issues, but you don’t get to be a Judge without some level of self-assurance that you already know everything you will ever need to know to do your job. So no, they are not reading trans feminist blogs, Bluesky posts or books. They are not going to.
Whereas I think we have a much better chance of bringing this fight through Parliament utilising the support of MPs. Many have expressed dismay at this ruling and other anti-trans action in the UK and it is time to put their power where their pity is. We don’t need heartfelt apologies, we need a political class willing to push for changes to legislation ensure we can’t just be defined out of existence.
Specifically I believe that the end goal is to abolish government recognition of what sex it believes our bodies to be. In short; abolish legal sex. As the government should have no right to extensively catalogue anyone’s ins and outs in order to decide how they are treated under law. Everyone should receive the best possible treatment as an individual and sex – or rather the gov’ts view of sex – should not factor into it.
I think an incredibly valuable first step towards that goal is going to be campaigns that work towards removing binary ideologies of sex that plague our law. Sex is not binary according to experts in the field and the lived experiences of countless people whether they be women, men, non-binary, intersex, transgender or from a culture where the binary view didn’t take hold or has already been phased out.
Locally you can look to join trans groups, support trans inclusive queer organisations, or even just stick a few stickers up with trans flags on them. Part of the point of all of this has been to marginalise us into the fringes of society so that we can be ignored and forgotten. Even many little rebellions like a trans flag sticker on a lamp post add up to mean something much bigger to those who see it and feel safer because of it.
It is absolutely going to be harder to survive, resist and flourish under this ruling. I will not sugarcoat that in any way. But it is not impossible, I don’t believe it will last forever and the crap time we spend in this awkward bigoted limbo will be so much more tolerable with the beauty that is community.
You are who each other have, be there. <3