There are some signs of a return to sanity on this entire "gender theory" horse squeeze. "Transgender" athletes - dudes - are getting bounced off of women's sports teams. The Trump administration is applying pressure to make sure that women's and girls' sports stay restricted to, you know, women and girls. What a concept, right?
The United Kingdom, which was once a lot closer to being America, Original Recipe, has gone downhill on this topic over the last couple of decades, but even there, there are signs of returning to reality. Most recently, a UK Supreme Court decision acknowledged the staggeringly obvious: Men are men and women, women.
But it took a Supreme Court decision. Hoo boy.
The U.K. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a woman is someone born biologically female, excluding transgender people from the legal definition in a long-running dispute between a feminist group and the Scottish government.
The court said the unanimous ruling shouldn’t be seen as victory by one side, but several women’s groups that supported the appeal celebrated outside court and hailed it as a major win in their effort to protect spaces designated for women.
“Everyone knows what sex is and you can’t change it,” said Susan Smith, co-director of For Women Scotland, which brought the case. “It’s common sense, basic common sense, and the fact that we have been down a rabbit hole where people have tried to deny science and to deny reality, and hopefully this will now see us back to reality.”
The implications of this finding are considerable.
Five judges ruled that the U.K. Equality Act means trans women can be excluded from some groups and single-sex spaces such as changing rooms, homeless shelters, swimming areas and medical or counseling services provided only to women.
The court said the ruling did not remove rights for trans people still protected from discrimination under U.K. law. But it said certain protections should apply only to biological females and not transgender women.
It's unclear whether this decision would disallow men from women's sports leagues in the United Kingdom, but it's a win for reality regardless. Women's safe spaces - locker rooms, showers, shelters, and so on - will once more be reserved for women.
See Also: Trans-Identifying Male Out on Women's Team After Female Fencer Refuses to Compete Against Him
And, once again, author J.K. Rowling, a liberal in most respects, nevertheless cheered on the right side in this case.
The women’s rights group counted among its supporters author J.K. Rowling, who reportedly donated tens of thousands of pounds to back its work. The “Harry Potter” writer has been vocal in arguing that the rights for trans women should not come at the expense of those who are born biologically female.
Rowling said she was “so proud” of the “extraordinary, tenacious” For Women Scotland campaigners who took the case on a years-long battle through the courts.
But, seriously, it took a (UK) Supreme Court decision to drag this obvious biological fact kicking and screaming into the light of day? Let's recap the biology:
Humans are mammals. Mammals are sexually bipolar: Male and female. Humans are sexually bipolar: Male and female. There are two sex chromosomes, which take the form X and Y. If a person is conceived with an XX pattern, that person is female. If a person is conceived with an XY pattern, that person is male. There are some exceptions, some extremely rare polysomies (extra copies of a chromosome) that can lead to some sexual ambiguities, but those are very rare, and are unconnected to the psychological syndrome known as "gender dysphoria." Sex is not decided at birth, nor can it be changed later; it is innate, determined genetically at conception.
These are facts.
Humans being sexually bipolar has been known, well, forever. The genetic determination became known later, but the fact of the condition of being male or female has always been understood. Until recently, it was universally accepted as fact, and it's absurd that in the United Kingdom, it took a Supreme Court decision to point it out.
Look, any adult is free to identify however they please. An adult male can draw whiskers on his face and run around claiming to be an African sand cat for all anyone cares, but that doesn't mean we should accept him demanding that every public restroom include a litter box for him to do his business in. But there's this: that man isn't actually a cat. A man can claim to be a woman, but that doesn't make it so. And that claim does not entitle him to invade women's restrooms, changing spaces, showers, and so on.
So, good for the United Kingdom's Supreme Court. They got this one right.
