The so-called ‘gender debate’ has been a prevalent topic in the media now more than ever, due to the Supreme Court ruling on April 15th 2025; ‘the term woman in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex’ and ‘legal provisions rely on a consistent biological definition of sex.’ This means trans women are not legally considered women and will not be offered the same gender-based protections as cisgender women.
The ruling essentially determines that only cis women will have access to sex-based spaces like women’s refuges, which was the claim For Women Scotland brought forward to the court. The Supreme Court judges have stated that ‘this judgement is not a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another.’ Even so, the impacts of this ruling on the trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming community have already been detrimental. The psychological effect of this ruling must be immense, even without the torrents of online and in-person abuse the community is facing.
There has been a steady increase in hate crimes against the trans community in recent years, the numbers in London alone rising from 240 a year in 2019 to 520 in 2024. Stonewall released a report a couple of years ago that highlighted the experiences of those who had experienced hate crimes; one man detailing receiving ‘letters containing razor blades’ and a ‘toxic substance.’ It isn’t just physical violence; often, trans individuals are stalked and verbally abused in public.
Understandably, the recent Supreme Court ruling has many transgender individuals fearing for their lives. The EHRC recently released guidance suggesting that trans women shouldn’t be permitted to use single sex female bathrooms, but I would consider it far more dangerous to force them to use the men’s toilets. Supposed ‘sex realists’ often perpetuate the idea that people will pretend to be transgender to harm cisgender women, arguing that it is unsafe for cis women as it is a ‘slippery slope’ to allowing men into female toilets.
To me, this logic is nonsensical. We have multi-sex bathrooms in our homes as well as many public spaces. Additionally, most people go to the bathroom, do their business and then leave. I don’t know if this is just me, but I don’t tend to check who’s in each stall when I’m in a public toilet. I would also add that if a man wants to hurt a woman, he’s just going to do it. Rates of violence against women have been increasing at an alarming rate, with one in twelve women and girls being victims of this. If a man stabs a woman in the street, we talk about methods to reduce knife crime, rather than putting restrictions on men. Why should this be different?
This guidance also suggests that, alongside cisgender women, transgender men and other AFAB (assigned female at birth) gender nonconforming people should use the female bathrooms. If the whole reasoning behind the guidance in the first place is that they don’t want men in female bathrooms, then they completely undermine themselves by ruling that transgender men and masculine-presenting individuals should be forced into these spaces, putting them in a difficult and potentially unsafe position. In 2022, a trans man named Noah Ruiz was advised to use the men’s toilets by staff at a campground. He was then beaten up by a group of people outside the bathroom who didn’t believe him when he said he was transgender. This ruling affects more than just trans women, its negative impacts span across the entire trans and gender non-conforming community.
Many TERFs in online spaces have completely destroyed any notion that this whole argument is about protecting women. The hateful rhetoric spread by individuals such as JK Rowling, who was pictured celebrating with a cigar in one hand and a drink in the other after the Supreme Court ruling, has created an extremely harmful environment for anyone who is gender non-conforming. Social media allows those with like-minded views to band together, creating a weapon to further their disgusting agenda. I would argue this is strongly facilitated by the fact that Elon Musk – a known transphobe – owns the platform ‘X’ where most of this discourse takes place. He has stated numerous times on the app that he believes his transgender daughter has been ‘mind controlled by the woke agenda.’
Many people don’t realise that this dangerous ideology also affects cisgender women. Imane Khelif, for example, is a cisgender female boxer who competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics. She was attacked at length on ‘X’ by JK Rowling and her supporters, and eventually took legal action. Only recently, a woman named Ansley Baker was kicked out of a women’s bathroom in the Liberty Hotel in Boston due to the fact that other guests thought she wasn’t feminine enough. This highlights the fact that transphobia is rooted in misogynistic beauty standards, with women needing to be conventionally beautiful to be considered feminine.
While these issues are also affecting cis women as stated above, it is also important to remember that the main victims in this situation are transgender, gender non-conforming and nonbinary people. Trans people make up 0.5% of the UK’s population. If these people really wanted to help women’s rights, don’t you think they would pay more attention to issues like period poverty and the ever-rising domestic violence statistics rather than a struggling minority?
Recently, two women sat on the campus of my university, perpetuating the cruel ideologies shared by the ‘gender critical’ movement. Luckily, the University of Leeds and LUU staff were quick to step in and disperse them, but their display was downright disgusting. The signs they brought had questions on them, such as ‘Do you think the Taliban ask people for their pronouns before they decide who isn’t allowed to travel without a male relative?’, proving that this display was purely for rage bait. They aren’t even attempting to tackle the underlying issue here: women’s rights. Instead, they use this very real issue to further their own hateful cause. This act also demonstrated their own apparent lack of awareness, proving every day why we need more education on topics like gender.
The most important thing for me to state here is that these girls were framing this as a debate. This is not a debate, these are people’s lives, people’s identities. These relentless attacks on the trans community appear to disregard the fact that they are individuals, simply trying to live. The incredible student community of Leeds came together to write lovely messages outside the union in chalk, as well as putting up trans flags, and I couldn’t be prouder of the students here.
As a woman, I would be far more terrified walking at night by a group of men than of sharing a bathroom or space with a trans woman, my own girlfriend being trans herself.
We need to recognise our privilege and help in any way possible. There is a community that needs our support. The University of Leeds has a very welcoming LGBT+ society that hosts numerous events and fundraisers throughout the year. There is also a Leeds-based organisation called ‘TransLeeds’ which runs support groups and offers help to anyone over the age of eighteen with identities under the trans umbrella. Both of these could be helpful to direct any of your trans peers to for help. Make sure to check up on your trans relatives, friends, coworkers, partners, or anyone you think could benefit from even just a kind word.
Trans people need our support, now more than ever.
Written by: Fliss Field
Edited by: Eva Taper-Boyd