Britain's Prime Minister said today he was pleased with the Supreme Court's ruling that biological sex is what determines whether a person can legally be considered a woman, praising the clarification of the issue.
"It has given us clarity, much-needed clarity," Keir Starmer told the BBC today.
The Prime Minister, who had not yet commented on the court ruling announced last Wednesday, expressed "real satisfaction" with the definition of who can benefit from the rights enshrined in British law.
The Supreme Court responded to the doubts of transgender women, he said, emphasizing that "a woman is an adult woman, and the court made that absolutely clear."
The judicial body, which in this case is equivalent to the Constitutional Court in Portugal, ruled last week that the definition of woman in British gender equality legislation should be based solely on biological sex, which excludes transgender women.
"The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and a biological sex," the deputy chief justice announced.
However, he stressed that the ruling should not be seen as a defeat for LGBT+ rights campaigners, as "the Equality Act 2010 gives transgender people protection not only against discrimination through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment in substance on the basis of their acquired gender."
The ruling concluded a long-running dispute between a women's rights organisation and the Scottish government, which argued that a transgender person with a gender recognition certificate as female could be considered a woman under equality laws.
The organisation that brought the appeal, For Women Scotland, argued that its findings could have consequences across the UK for gender-based rights, as well as services such as hospital toilets and wards.
The case stems from a 2018 law passed by the Scottish Parliament that requires there to be 50% female representation on the boards of Scottish public bodies.
This law included transgender women in its definition of women.
Women's rights groups successfully challenged the law, arguing that its redefinition of "woman" exceeded the powers of the regional parliament.
The Scottish Executive then issued guidelines that the definition of "woman" included a transgender woman who held a gender recognition certificate.
The challenge was rejected by a court in 2022, but the group was granted permission last year to take its case to the Supreme Court.
The final decision, announced last week, was contested by several thousand protesters, who gathered in London and Edinburgh in defense of the rights of transgender people, stressing that "trans women are women" and that they "are not the enemy".
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