Response by CrawleyLGBT to Supreme Court Ruling on the Equality Act

On the 16th April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act of 2010 did not include Transgender Women who hold a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). This was then followed up by Kishwer Falkner, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said the judgement meant only biological (cis-gendered women) women could use single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and toilets. Within this ruling, the court asserted that this would not mean Trans women would lose any rights because they are protected by the equality Act of 2010, which feels like a direct contradiction to them eroding the basic rights of being able to use a bathroom.

We, like many people around the country were incredibly shocked by this ruling. Pushed by a small group of people that are fixated on punishing a minority group for simply existing and living. We took some time to be with the people most affected by this ruling, to help them understand what it meant for them.

This ruling, inevitably, will put Trans People in compromising and dangerous situations, entirely based on the hate and bigotry of someone else. This ruling sets a precedence to not only attack trans people, but any woman who doesn't present as obviously 'feminine' as well as continuing to erode the rights of Trans People further.

The basis of this case, being bought about to protect biological women from men highlights a wider issue in society. That being that women are attacked by men, in all aspects of their lives, and men are allowed to get away with it. In 2024, 71,227 rape cases were reported to police in England and Wales. Of all those cases, only 2.7% had charges been brought. Men do not need to 'dress as women' to enter a woman's space to assault her. This happens nearly every day, without them doing that. Banning trans women from women's spaces will not change these statistics.

No real trans person is out to get you. Nobody would go through years of hate, abuse, anxiety, body dysphoria, changing their lives and documentation, having to come out to friends and family, counselling, NHS waiting lists, hormone treatments and surgery just to use a toilet.

Trans people have always existed and will continue to exist. As an LGBTQU+ family and community, we need to stand by our trans siblings as they have stood by us. An attack on anyone's rights is an attack on all of us. CrawleyLGBT CIC proudly stands with the Trans+ community, you are always welcome here and will always have a safe place to call home.