Deputy First Minister criticises Equality Commission gender ruling legal action

Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister has criticised the region’s Equality Commission for taking legal action after the Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex.

Earlier this month the Equality Commission applied to the High Court for leave to apply for judicial review, after the Supreme Court’s ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.

It is seeking a clarification of how the ruling should be applied in the “different legal context of Northern Ireland”.

Asked about the move during questions for the Executive Office in the Assembly on Monday, Emma Little-Pengelly said she did not believe that it is a “necessary expenditure”.

“They are operationally independent. That is a decision that they can make themselves. However, the question is, should they be making that decision, should they be prioritising that?” she said.

Pressed further by TUV MLA Timothy Gaston that the move was a “disgrace”, and asked whether the Executive Office was giving the Equality Commission “far too much money, that they can waste it on a futile challenge like this”, Ms Little-Pengelly said she did not believe the legal action was necessary.

“It is more legal action, more cost, more delay and on what? Common sense must prevail,” she told MLAs.

“I think most people out there find this to be completely bonkers, not because they want to hate on anyone, but because, to the vast majority of people, it is common sense that the definition of a man or a woman is related to biological sex.

“But more importantly than that, is the reality that there should be and must be safe spaces and female-only spaces, should that be in changing rooms and toilets or places of sanctuary, but also about fairness.

“We’ve seen that play out in terms of fairness in sport.”

She added: “As a woman, I never consented to my rights being diminished in terms of the changing or evolving or attempts to change that definition, and yet what we’ve seen now is an Equality Commission that is arguing to reset that back to a common sense definition of biological male or female as somehow a diminution of somebody else’s rights.

“That is wrong. It is absolutely bonkers.

“We need to get back to common sense and, indeed, we need to stop wasting money on this type of thing.”