Supreme Court ruling puts ‘target’ on trans people

Trans cyclist Emily Bridges believes the UK Supreme Court has painted “a target” on the back of trans people’s, after ruling on the legal definition of the “women” and “sex”.

The court’s ruling last week that the words “sex” and “women” in the 2010 Equality Act refer to “biological sex” and “biological women”, had increased trans people’s vulnerability, Bridges said.

“You go out of the house thinking: ‘is this the day someone is going to shout at me, attack me?’” she added. “Now maybe it’s heightened but that is always the reality for a trans person and it has been forever.”

Announcing the court’s unanimous decision, judge Lord Patrick Hodge said: “We counsel against reading this judgement as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.”

Nonetheless, expressing her disbelief at the verdict, Bridges told ITV News sports editor Steve Scott: “I felt it has painted more of a kind of target on our back. It’s been wall-to-wall coverage across social media and across the news and, of course, the newspapers.”

Bridges, who was banned from the British Cycling Championship in 2022, also thought the ruling allowed anti-trans people to feel “more comfortable to express hateful views”. She went on to say: “It’s not just trans people but about people of colour, immigrants, religious minorities, and there’s been a massive rise in sexism.

“The things being said now wouldn’t have been dreamt of 10 years ago. No one cared about us 10 years ago, it’s manufactured. The general public don’t care about us, they care about being able to pay the rent or putting food on the table.”

Bridges pointed out that she still had the right to use single-sex spaces, regardless of any judicial precedent.

“I’m perceived as female on the street, I am greeted with ‘miss’, I’m perceived as a woman. I’m going to use a female changing room, I’m going to use a female toilet,” she insisted.

“The policing of toilets, which has already been happening, is: if you’re not welcome, you’ll be asked to leave. That’s how it works. The solution is definitely not men’s toilets, women’s toilets, trans and disabled toilets. Segregation is not the way to go. It’s forcing us into third spaces and out of public life.”

Experts and LGBTQ+ groups have warned that the court ruling could have dire consequences for the rights of trans and non-binary people. Stonewall chief executive Simon Blake expressed “deep concerns” over the implications.

And Helen Belcher, the chairperson of LGBTQ+ not-for-profit group TransActual, was “devastated” by the outcome of the court case.

“The Supreme Court chose not to hear from any trans people, preferring instead to listen to exclusionary groups,” Belcher said. “Instead of bringing clarity, the Supreme Court has made a ruling which appears to contain a number of contradictions.”

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.