London (AP) – Thousands of Trans Rights demonstrators gathered in central London on Saturday, a few days after The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled That a woman is a person born biologically female and that transgender women are excluded from this legal definition.
With unwinding On what the decision means to the rights of transgender persons, the demonstrators met with regard to an “emergency demonstration” in the Place du Parliament. The activists demanded “trans liberation” and “trans rights now”, with waving flags and holding banners.
Trans groups fear that Wednesday’s historic decision would undermine their rights, even if the highest court in the United Kingdom said that transgender people were protected against discrimination. The head of the Human Equality and Rights Commission said the The decision will mean transgender women Will be excluded from the women’s toilets, hospital rooms and sports teams.
“This is a terrifying moment for your rights to have removed you,” said the 19 -year -old transgender woman Sophie Gibbs. “I have been disappointed to think that we could live in a society that seems so progressive now but which is willing to make such a dangerous and harmful decision.”
The British government said that the unanimous decision of the five judges had brought “clarity and confidence” for women and service providers.
Out of some 66 million people in England, Scotland and Wales, around 116,000 identified as trans in the last census. About 8,500 gender recognition certificates were issued.
The decision comes from a 2018 law adopted by the Scottish Parliament which required at least 50% of women to the board of directors of Scottish public bodies. Transgender women with gender recognition certificates were to be included in the quota meeting.
The Supreme Court said that the use of a certificate to interpret someone’s sex would come up against definitions of man and woman and, therefore, the anti-discrimination provisions of the 2010 equality law could “be interpreted only as referring to biological sex”.
Scottish Prime Minister John Swinney said on Saturday that he “understood” the people of the “wounded and anxious” felt the verdict, while accepting that the decision must be followed.
Many people during the protest on Saturday feared that the decision was the precursor of other judgments which decrease the rights of transgender.
“This is a Pandora box situation where I just think we allow certain things, then we have essentially opened the door to authorize much more than we never think they are accepted or pushed,” said Zuleha Oshodi, 29.
