18 hours ago
Gender-critical campaigners sue SNP ministers for defying trans ruling
Gender-critical campaigners are suing SNP ministers for defying the Supreme Court ruling over the definition of a woman.
For Women Scotland said it had 'little choice but to initiate further legal action' after the Scottish Government failed to issue updated policies on access to female-only safe spaces.
Formal proceedings have started in the effort to quash guidance for schools that states pupils should be able to use the lavatories and changing facilities they 'feel most comfortable with'.
It also allows biological boys to compete against girls in school sports if they say they identify as female, The Sunday Times reported.
In addition, the campaign group's legal action is targeting rules in Scottish prisons, which allow biologically male prisoners to be housed in women's jails in certain circumstances.
A trans woman can be imprisoned in a female jail if they have not hurt or threatened women or girls and there is no basis to suppose they pose an unacceptable risk.
For Women Scotland has now applied to the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking to quash the policies, which it says are 'inconsistent with the UK Supreme Court judgment of April 16 2025'.
The Supreme Court ruled trans women are not women for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, with the definition based on biological sex.
Some public bodies, including the Scottish Parliament and Police Scotland, have issued updated guidance banning trans people from using single-sex toilets and changing rooms.
John Swinney, the First Minister, said the rest of the public sector should await guidance on implementing the ruling from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) before acting.
But interim guidance has been issued by the equalities watchdog stating that access to single-sex facilities in workplaces and public services should be based on biological sex.
The EHRC has also told the Scottish Government it did not need to delay, noting that the law was already set out in the Supreme Court's 'very readable' ruling and this was 'effective immediately'.
For Women Scotland warned Joe Griffin, the SNP administration's most senior civil servant, in June that it reserved 'the right to take further action if the Scottish Government continues to fail to uphold the law'.
In a new statement, the group said: 'Nothing has persuaded the government to take action and both policies remain stubbornly in place, to the detriment of vulnerable women and girls, leaving us little choice but to initiate further legal action.
'The Scottish ministers have 21 days to respond to the summons. If the policies have not been withdrawn by then we will lodge the summons for calling, and the government will have to defend its policies in court.
'We are asking the court to issue a declarator that the school guidance and the prison guidance are unlawful and that they be reduced in whole. We are also asking that both policies are suspended in the meantime.'
A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'It would be inappropriate to comment on live court proceedings.'
The National Library of Scotland (NLS) has also been warned it faces legal action after removing a gender-critical book from a major exhibition commemorating its centenary.
Human rights charity Sex Matters has written to the NLS warning that it could face thousands of claims for excluding The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht from its Dear Library display.
Maya Forstater, the charity's chief executive, argued represented unlawful discrimination and harassment under the Equality Act 2010, which protects gender-critical beliefs.
It emerged last week that the book, a collection of essays by feminists including JK Rowling, who had fought against Nicola Sturgeon's gender self-ID laws, had been selected for the exhibition.
But Amina Shah, Scotland's national librarian and the NLS chief executive, decided to remove the book from the exhibition after coming under pressure from the library's LGBT+ staff network, who called it 'hate speech'.
The NLS said the book would still be available to read in the library. A spokesman said: 'We will examine the contents of the letter and will respond in due course.'
