A woman is defined as someone who is born biologically female, Britain’s top court has ruled. The interpretation is for purposes of the country’s Equality Act, the landmark five-judge bench judgement has clarified. Yet, the ruling comes as a blow since it excludes transgender women, even those with gender reassignment certificates, from the legal definition.

What will this mean on the ground? It will impact not just transgender women’s access to toilets—a huge red flag in the so-called culture wars—but access to a host of single-sex facilities. Where, for instance will transgender women be housed in prisons and hospital wards? How will they access domestic violence shelters meant for women? Can a transgender woman sue her organization for equal pay?

And, of course, the judgment will mean that transgender girls and women can no longer participate in women’s sport.

The case was brought by a group called For Women Scotland (FWS), a non-profit that is opposed to the granting of rights to transgender women, and financed by author J K Rowling.

The group went to court after Scotland passed a law in 2018 that set targets for increasing the proportion of women on public boards—and included trans women in its definition. FWS lost the case and appealed to the UK Supreme Court. “What we wanted was clarity in the law—when something is described as a single-sex service, a single-sex space, that this relates to biology,” Susan Smith from WFS told BBC.

The UK Supreme Court has said its ruling is limited to the country’s equality laws and that it is not commenting more broadly on whether trans women are women. “We........

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