A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #361 - Antipatriarchy - United Kingdom: British Justice in Line with Transphobic Lobbyists (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

While attacks against trans people are increasing worldwide, the 
offensive has been particularly strong in recent years in the United 
Kingdom. But a new level of transphobia and transmisogyny was reached 
following a Supreme Court decision last April. On April 16, 2025, the 
British Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the definition of woman in 
the Equality Act 2010 referred only to "biological women," in other 
words, not to trans women. This decision followed a dispute between the 
association For Women Scotland. The Scottish government had issued 
guidelines clarifying that the legal term "women" included trans women 
who had obtained a change of their sex designation on their civil 
status. The transphobic association benefits from the support of the 
well-established TERF movement[1]in Great Britain, and notably from 
author J.K. Rowling, who donated the equivalent of EUR80,000 to carry 
out their legal campaign.

While the judges were quick to affirm that trans women remained 
protected from discrimination, the Supreme Court's ruling effectively 
calls into question trans women's access to single-sex spaces such as 
restrooms, changing rooms, and even shelters for victims of domestic 
violence.

A widespread reactionary offensive
The institution has extended its reasoning to workplaces, sports 
activities, and even hospitals-with the dual consequence of creating a 
constant climate of threat over trans people and giving a new lease on 
life to the transphobic attacks they may be targeted. These attacks were 
not long in coming.

Thus, the English Football Association (FA) has decided to ban trans 
women from competitions starting June 1, 2025. Others will follow suit, 
leading to greater ostracization of trans people, even though sport is 
an important means of socialization. The argument of fairness towards 
cisgender women is being exploited and does not hold water: the 
performances of trans players on hormones do not suggest that they would 
benefit from a particular physical advantage over cis women... It must 
be said that, by the FA's own admission, only about twenty trans players 
are affected.

And then there are the everyday attacks, for example, accusations of 
using the "wrong restroom," which are on the rise in the United Kingdom 
and the United States. These attacks regularly target cis women whose 
appearance is not considered feminine enough. These phenomena of 
"transvestigation"[2]should not be understood as an attack solely on 
trans people, but more broadly as the consequence of a reactionary 
attempt to maintain control over our lives and bodies so that they 
conform to patriarchal gender stereotypes.

Following the Supreme Court's decision, a legal challenge was filed with 
the European Court of Human Rights. But we would be wrong to trust 
judicial institutions imbued with cis-heteronormative thinking. To 
counter the current reactionary offensive supported by billionaires who 
exploit the rights of cis women to defend their class interests, we must 
attack the evil at its root and build a massive alliance that 
encompasses (among other things) anti-patriarchal and anti-capitalist 
struggles.

Sano (UCL Marseille) and Johanna (UCL Finistère)

Confirm

[1]"Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists" is a reactionary transphobic 
movement that historically emerged from certain feminist movements.

[2]A popular practice in far-right circles that consists of asking 
whether a person is trans, generally based on physical criteria.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Royaume-Uni-La-justice-britannique-en-phase-avec-les-lobbys-transphobes
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