Trans people

Scottish Prime Minister John Swinney said that the Supreme Court’s decision on the legal meaning of a woman would leave members of the trans “uncertain and anxious”.

He spoke then that demonstrations took place in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh against the decision that biological sex defines a woman for the end of the equality law.

Swinney refused to reply directly to know if he thought that a trans woman was a woman, but said that he had accepted the tribunal judgment.

He said the Scottish government would state the measures it would be to comply with the law on Tuesday.

This means that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from unique spaces so “proportioned”.

The case had been carried by the group for women in Scotland who said that sexual protections should only apply to people born.

The Scottish government has argued in court that transgender people with a gender recognition certificate (RCMP) are entitled to same -sex protections as biological women.

The judges ruled unanimously that the terms woman and sex in the 2010 equality law “refer to a biological woman and the biological sex” rather than “certified sex”.

Large demonstrations took place in George Square of Glasgow and at the foot of the mound in Edinburgh on Saturday to protest against the judgment.

Thousands of others crossed the center of London for what was presented as an “emergency demonstration” which started on the Place du Parliament before heading to St James’s Park.

The activists demanded “trans liberation” and “trans rights now”, with flags waving and holding banners who read “no feminism without trans women” and “biology is not binary”.

John Swinney told BBC Scotland News that his government “would accept and adapt to the circumstances”.

He said: “The first thing that is important is that we must all accept the rule of law, so I accept the decision of the Supreme Court because it is the most important voice of the country.

“We will focus entirely on the guarantee that everyone’s rights are protected at a time when, I recognize that there will be many in the Trans community which feel very uncertain and worried about the implications of the Supreme Court decision.”

Swinney said that the courts in Scotland had supported the Scottish government twice and that his government had always acted in “good faith”, but added that the Supreme Court had provided a legal certainty.

One of those who attended the demonstration in Glasgow was Alexander Cart, a trans man who described to be “completely devastated” by the decision.

Alex told BBC Scotland News: “I already find it difficult to go to unique sex spaces because I look too feminine for one and too masculine for the other, but now I feel like I was really forced in a corner of you, I have to go to the ladies’ toilets.

“I am terrified for the future, I do not know if my care will get worse tomorrow or if it will improve.

“We are told that we cannot be who we want to be and most of us are adults, it should surely be our choice to choose what we want and who we are.”

Trans people will continue to protect under the equality law because gender reallocation is listed as a protected characteristic.

The Human Equality and Rights Commission – which oversees the application of the equality law – is to issue new directives to help service providers.

The head of the watchdog, Baroness Falkner, suggested that trans people should use their “plaid power” to request installations including a “third space” for the toilet.

Susan Smith, co -director of For Women Scotland, the group who brought the case to the Supreme Court, called on the Scottish government to apologize to women.

She told BBC Scotland News: “I think we will ask for an apology, no personal apology from Mr. Swinney, but of the Scottish government for the way they addressed this, the way they treated it, the way they treated activists.

“There must be an acceptance from the Scottish government that a large part of what they have done, a large part of what they have enabled the ministers or the members of the committees to do and say and act were completely wrong.”

She added that the decision would have “huge implications” in the public sector in Scotland, including in schools, prisons and hospitals.

She said that for women in Scotland should be part of the discussions in the future.