In 2018, Scotland passed a law requiring at least 50% of public board members to be women, including trans women. However, on April 16, 2025, the UK Supreme Court ruled that, for this purpose, a “woman” refers only to individuals assigned female at birth, excluding trans women from the quota.
The Court also affirmed that under the Equality Act 2010, trans women can be lawfully excluded from certain single-sex spaces, such as changing rooms and this could potentially extend to rape crisis centers and domestic abuse services. Trans rights advocates argue this ruling undermines the Gender Recognition Act and signals a broader rollback of protections, especially as the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission recently suggested redefining “sex” in law to mean biological sex only. These developments align with a wider international trend of increasing legal restrictions targeting trans people.