By Devin Valentine.
For those who don’t know, I’m a transgender man. My life and the lives of everyone in the trans community and under the broad umbrella of gender diversity is politicised every day. I don’t get the comfort of saying “I don’t do politics”. This has been a shocking and deeply scary week for trans people. I have been in tears.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of a group called “Women for Scotland” who have been escalating cases against the Scottish, and broader UK government, to remove trans women from any legal definition of “woman”. They are backed by JKR and have brought cases to court every year since 2021.
They had a win in 2022, where legislation was altered to require that trans people have a gender recognition certificate to be covered under certain legal definitions. They appealed this to the supreme court in 2024, and took it to another level: that some women should not be defined as women under the Equality Act 2010, regardless of having a gender recognition certificate. On Thursday, we found out they won this case.
It should be clear from what is happening overseas, that any erosion of human rights and protections presents an opportunity for exploitation that eventually comes to harm everyone. The most vulnerable are targeted first, we have historical precedent. The attacks will not stop there, next it will be prisons, sports and schools where the new precedent is pushed.
Trans women are not a threat. There is zero evidence for trans women making single sex spaces less safe for anyone. This uproar is based on hypotheticals, whilst men have always been able to get away with gender based violence whilst ascending to the highest places of office. If this was about women’s safety, really, they’d turn their attention and massive wealth elsewhere.
There’s so much more to say but I just had to say something. I will not stand by or be silent whilst my loving, beautiful and supportive community is under attack.
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