Trans community fears rights ‘melting away’ after Supreme Court ruling

The transgender community fears its rights are “melting away” after a legal ruling which has left people “terrified”, according to one trans woman.

The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

The head of Britain’s equalities watchdog said the ruling means trans women cannot use single-sex female toilets, changing rooms or compete in women’s sports.

Sarah Savage, a trans woman who is the chief executive and co-founder of Trans Pride Brighton, said it was not long ago that trans rights felt “solidified”.

The 43-year-old, from Brighton, told the PA news agency: “I came out on a Channel 4 television show called My Transsexual Summer in 2011, and that was viewed as a watershed in trans rights.

“We thought we’d never go back because now people saw us as humans.

“It felt like our rights were solidified, and now it feels like it’s melting away, and it’s melting away because the people in power are not standing up for us.”

Miss Savage described the ruling as “extremely worrying”, adding she had benefited from access to a women’s refuge after she came out and is now concerned that opportunity has been taken away from others.

One domestic abuse charity, Refuge, said on Wednesday the court ruling “will not change” the way it operates as it remains “firmly committed to supporting all survivors of domestic abuse, including trans women”.

The charity said it offers a range of “specialist services that are accessible to trans women, including our helpline, community-based support, and some accommodation-based services” which are “designed to provide safety, dignity, and tailored support to meet individual needs”.

Miss Savage added: “It makes me feel scared for the future because my rights are literally being taken away before my very eyes.

“What if I need to go to a hospital? Am I going to be treated with respect? What kind of ward am I going to be put in?

“Am I going to need to use the loo and then be harassed because of it? It’s terrifying, honestly.

“We had a committee meeting last night. Everyone was terrified.

“Trans people just want to have a quiet life, we just want to get on with it. We don’t want all this drama, we just want respect.”

A director of community group TransActual, jane fae – who spells her name in lower case – also expressed concern about her potential future care.

“As I get older I may need hospital care, I foresee being forced into the indignity of being on a male ward, that would be upsetting to say the least,” the 67-year-old from Letchworth told PA.

“For younger people it’s an exclusion from society, and those are only the legal consequences.

“I think this should in time be unpicked but probably not in what’s left of my lifetime.

“This is going to take years to unpick, and I have no confidence whatsoever in the English legal or political system.

“The climate back in the noughties was that people cared about human rights, and I fear we may have coarsened since then, and we don’t care so much about human rights now.”