The city’s Castle Square was filled with protesters angry at the ruling
More than 100 people gathered at Castle Square in Swansea today [April 19] to protest against the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of woman under the 2010 Equality Act.
The ruling came after the For Women Scotland (FWS) campaign group brought forward a series of challenges regarding the definition of women in Scottish legislation which reserved 50% female representation on public boards. The major bone of contention was whether a person who was recognised as a female on their gender recognition cerificate could be treated as a woman under the Equality Act 2010.
In its decision, the Supreme Court said: “The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.”
The decision was received with instantaneous jubilation and dejection alike. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here
During the protest in Swansea, some expressed their discontent at the Supreme Court’s ruling, while others from the trans community expressed worry about their future. WalesOnline spoke to some of the people present, and this is what they had to say:
Supreme Court’s ruling “unconscionable”
Imogen, 27, a freelance musician said: “The ruling that the Supreme Court has done is unconscionable and a total miscarriage of justice. The thing is these laws aren’t going to protect cis women at all.
“In a majority of research, it has shown it is butch and masculine women that end up getting harassed in the toilet for being men when they don’t appear to be feminine enough for the majority’s opinion.”
The 27-year-old added: “I think it will impact everyone enormously in a negative way. I think in terms of transport police as well saying that strip searches will be conducted by men on men and women on women regardless of how people identify and all these things about changing rooms, it’s just bizarre.
“Not everyone transitions medically but the people that do, even if we just take them into account if they’ve completed their transition and had all surgeries and everything and they’re completely happy in themselves. They’re now being told that they can’t use the bathroom or the changing room that they’ve been using for the past, let’s say decades. What are they then supposed to do now?
“Because they are going to look and sound very much like the exact people they think that shouldn’t be in the bathroom. So you’re going to get trans men in the women’s bathroom, you’re going to get trans men in the changing room and nobody ever talks about trans men.”
“I’m scared of what’s going to happen”
Amber, a student in their twenties said: “I’m trans, so I think obviously I’m motivated by… in some ways fear. I’m scared of what’s going to happen. Once they’ve done this, they’re not going to stop, they are going to move on to other things, and I’m really scared about what they’re going to do to trans healthcare, whether or not it’s NHS or private healthcare, they’ll try to erode all of it, and I think that’s the scariest thing.
“They’re taking away my control over my body. That’s what they want to do and that’s what scares me the most because now they’ve done this… they’re going to move on from legal recognition to our biological control over our own bodies and our medical freedoms and that’s when I think it becomes really, really sinister.
“I don’t really go out much. Generally, because of the social climate, I don’t really feel comfortable in any single sex spaces at the moment. I kind of avoid them, and that’s been happening for a while.”
They added that the idea of separate gendered spaces for trans people is “humiliating”, adding: “I feel like in some ways it’s quite humiliating, I’d rather stay at home to be honest. Obviously public spaces should be for everyone, but I don’t feel comfortable in public spaces because there’s a large group of people making me feel uncomfortable in public space.”
“They are who they are”
Ashley Horobin, 21, said: “The support of everyone here today just shows why we need to be here and why we need to fight.”
Speaking of the Supreme Court ruling, the catering manager said: “It’s going to be a huge impact by the end of it because, as they were saying, trans women are being just taken out of toilets, they’re supposed to be there. They are who they are, we shouldn’t be going by what their genitals are or what they are, it should be who they are, they should be human at the end.”
Ashley, who is bisexual, added that he was also worried about what’s going to happen next from his own perspective. He said: “As history has shown, they start with one thing and it just grows to a big proportion. I think we all could be affected by the end of this.”
“Just let people exist, that’s all they want to do”
Luca Webster, 24, an office administrator, identifies as non-binary and said: “A lot of my closest friends are trans, and they deserve to be seen and to be looked after just as much as anyone else, and it just felt right for me to be here, be with my community and stand up for something, as we should.”
They explained that this ruling might affect trans people’s mental health: “It’s not just the impact in day-to-day lives, but the psychological impact. It’s such a brave thing to realise who you are and to be open about that and to suddenly have this happen. Where does it end? What does this start?
“It’s hard enough watching the people I love be harassed and abused in their day-to-day lives; they don’t need to have these pressures put on them.”
Luca said they feel this decision has the potential to impact the wider LGBTQ+ community: “Where does the line get drawn? Because, you know you’ve got lesbians who may look a bit masculine, like are they gonna get treated differently as well because of that? It’s just so reductive because this could spread into medical spaces, which are meant to be safe. And it’s something as simple as just going to the toilet. Like, why is that a concern to people?”
They added: “Biology is too colourful for it to be put into a binary and just let people exist, that’s all they want to do at the end of the day.”
“Supreme Court’s ruling damaging and harmful”
Shauna Hopkins, 26 a student support staff member at Swansea University, said: “I think the ruling is damaging and harmful and I think it’s given a lot of harmful, hateful people the OK to be more outwardly hateful than they already are. I think it’s going to mean people feeling unsafe in public spaces.
“I think it’s going to be people with perhaps uneducated views feeling emboldened to say something to someone vulnerable. I think it’s also going to mean that someone who doesn’t fit the outward visual idea of what someone may think is a woman may be targeted as well. I think that it has far more wide-reaching implications than the government thinks, and I think that is a really harmful thing.”
She worried that the ruling also might have a harmful effect on vulnerable students who she supports: “I don’t know yet, I’ve not had the opportunity to speak to my students directly. But, I think for lots of students, especially students who do have those difficult family relationships that I support, I think this will be difficult for them and I think finding communities is going to be even more important than ever.
“I think students who don’t have those family relationships because of their gender identity or because of their sexuality could find this even more harmful than the rest of us. We don’t know what the actual legislative implications are going to be yet, but you can kind of deduce the way it’s going from what’s been said.”
“We just feel like our rights are being robbed”
Sasha Wilkins, 41, who came out recently, said that they are back where they started: “I came out about five months ago. So all this was new to me and I had my freedom. I met a few friends who had the freedom and now it feels like our freedom has been taken away from us.
“It hasn’t gone any other way for the other side of transgenders like female to male… and we’ve got a lot of support with, well, actual women helping us. So, we just feel like our rights are being robbed. The government said ‘oh be yourself, be yourself’ and then all of a sudden there’s a clamp down and we’re back to where we started and we’re not having it. We’ve spent all our life in closets.”
“Local government waiting on guidance”
Lilith Fenris, a councillor on Llanelli Town council said: “I’m here to stand up for trans rights. Obviously we’ve had a very emotional decision that was coming through last week and I think right now it’s important that we take a stand and realise that we’re not just going to let these sort of decisions keep on happening to trans people, that we’re going to stand here as a community and fight this.”
Speaking on what the ruling means for local governance, the councillor said: “So local government is… it’s a bit of a difficult time because it’s obviously a very new ruling. It’s something that is different to how we’ve been operating in the past. At this point in time we’re waiting really for guidance to come down to us to see what we can do to make it a little bit more bearable for trans people.”
Asked about how the ruling is going to impact Cis gendered women, she said: “Realistically we aim to not impact their comfortability at all. It’s my view that trans women are not a problem in women’s spaces. Obviously you’ll have women that view that differently.
“However, this is being whipped up by elements of anti trans groups that are well funded, well organised and they are looking to persecute trans people in these spaces. So I would hope that we can make all services as comfortable for trans women and cis gendered women as we possibly can.”