On 26-27 November the UK Supreme Court will consider a question over which politicians continually stumble but that all reasonable people can answer without difficulty – what is a woman? In a case brought by For Women Scotland, the Court will decide whether the administrative process of awarding of a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) turns a man into a woman for “all purposes”, and in doing so, removes the protections for women outlined in the Equality Act 2010.
This case is crucial for lesbians, and LGB Alliance is intervening along with lesbian groups to spell out why. Apparently it is not obvious. When the Equality and Human Rights Commission noted to the Inner Court of Session “If sex means legal sex, then sexual orientation changes on acquiring a GRC”, Lady Haldane responded in her judgment: “We confess that we have not found it easy to follow this particular submission. It is not a necessary inference from Section 9 of the GRA that a person’s sexual orientation changes on acquiring a GRC. There is no such thing as being ‘legally lesbian’ and we have not identified a problem which would require that sex be referable to biology alone.”
No one is sexually attracted to a certificate. It should be clear that the sexual orientation of lesbians – and indeed of anyone else – is about physical characteristics and not paperwork. The definition of sexual orientation in the Equality Act 2010 hinges on the definition of sex in that Act.
LGB Alliance was pleased to be given permission to submit evidence as an Intervener because it was deemed we raised “novel, important and relevant points of law”. These relate specifically to the impact on lesbians of men who apply for a GRC and, subsequently,
call themselves lesbians.
Our position
People born male who self-define as women, and as lesbians – whether or not they possess a GRC – are heterosexual men. Pretending otherwise is an assault on reality and reason that hurts all women but especially lesbians.
We believe that those men who insist on accessing lesbian services and spaces, despite the hurt and alarm they cause, are coercive, abusive and potentially dangerous. Applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate involves completing an online form and costs £5. If the Supreme Court decides that this process can make any man a lesbian, it will represent official state sanction for the aberrant desires of the worst men. It will also be used to justify the punishment of women who object.
This is a fight over the meaning of “lesbian” just as much as the word “woman”. If we are denied the language we need to describe ourselves, and our unique experience of being in the world, we are silenced. If we may not name the discrimination we face, we are powerless to challenge it.
The Supreme Court will ask: Is a woman merely an idea? Can a lesbian have a penis?
Are lesbians who refuse to accept that men can be lesbians bigoted? Should women
who say “no” to these men be punished?
If the Supreme Court answers yes to any of these questions, our rights and protections will be under threat.
How extraordinary it is that only five years after forming as a tiny group and achieving charitable status only in 2021, we are this week intervening in a case before the UK Supreme Court. It reflects the importance of the work we do in standing up for the rights of people with same-sex sexual orientation.
Please join us in wishing our legal team every success in this vital case.
To read more on the case visit https://forwomen.scot/