Britain’s highest court has put into question the use of ‘gender recognition certificates,’ which legally recognizes a person’s chosen gender identity.
Britain’s highest court has ruled that the words “woman” and “sex” refer to “a biological woman and biological sex,” in a landmark decision that follows years of confusion, anger, and campaigning.
The case sought to clarify the question of whether a person who holds an official certificate recognizing their gender as female is entitled to the same women’s rights protections under the law.
A commonly cited example was the question of whether women-only services—such as a rape crisis support group—were allowed to exclude men with a gender recognition certificate.
A gender recognition certificate means that a person’s chosen gender identity is legally recognized.
Obtaining the certificate requires a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, having lived as the identified gender for at least two years, and the intention to live as that self-identified gender until death.
More than 8,000 gender recognition certificates have been granted in the United Kingdom since their introduction under the Gender Recognition Act of 2005.
1. How Case Was Sparked
The case was instigated by campaign group For Women Scotland in 2022, who brought a series of legal challenges, beginning in Scotland and culminating in the UK Supreme Court, over the definition of the word “woman” in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018.
This legislation was passed by the Scottish Parliament and mandated that 50 percent of individuals on public boards be female, including in its definition males who identify as women.
Lawyers for For Women Scotland argued that not tying the definition of sex to its “ordinary meaning” could have far-reaching consequences for sex-based rights, as well as “everyday single-sex services” such as bathrooms, changing rooms, hospital wards, and domestic violence and rape crisis centers.
Counsel for the Scottish government argued at the Supreme Court hearing in November 2024 that a person with a gender recognition certificate is “recognized in law” as having changed sex.
2. The Ruling
On April 15, the Supreme Court ruled that sex is rooted in biology, not whether a person has chosen to identify as a certain gender.
Delivering the judgment, Lord Patrick Hodge, deputy president of the UK Supreme Court, said the central question is how the words “woman” and “sex” are defined in the Equality Act of 2010.
“The terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex,” Hodge said.
This means that men who identify as women and who hold a gender recognition certificate may be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate.”
By Guy Birchall
