WorthyNews: UK Court: Trans Women Not Legally Women; Harry Potter Author Happy

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By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

LONDON (Worthy News) – “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling celebrated Easter by welcoming a British Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not legally considered women under British law.

Rowling faced an outcry on social media and verbal attacks from stars in Harry Potter films based on her books after she publicly objected to the idea that being a man or woman “is a state of mind.”

Despite opposition, the 59-year-old multimillionaire creator of the Harry Potter franchise continued her anti-LGBTQ+ activism crusade in recent years.

She regularly used social media to support women-only spaces and was a public supporter of the For Women Scotland group, having donated 70,000 pounds ($93,000) for its legal challenge, which culminated in Wednesday’s ruling.

In a unanimous decision, the justices declared Wednesday that biological sex—not gender identity—determines legal classification under the Equality Act 2010.

At the heart of the case was the legal definition of “woman” and “sex” in the equality legislation. Delivering the verdict, Justice Lord Patrick Hodge stated that the law refers to “biological women” and affirmed that sex is “binary.”

Hodge emphasized that the decision should not be seen as “a victory for one group in society at the expense of another.”

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Scottish First Minister John Swinney said he would accept the ruling. The Scottish government had previously argued “that individuals born male but holding a Gender Recognition Certificate should be recognized as women under the law.”

The policy had led to serious issues, including in 2023 when Isla Bryson, a transgender woman found guilty of raping two women before transitioning, was briefly sent to an all-female prison.

Following a public outcry, Bryson was moved from Scotland’s all-female Cornton Vale prison to a male facility after an intervention by then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Now, Britain’s top court, which also has jurisdiction over Scotland, has confirmed that a biological man or woman is determined by birth, not by (surgical) changes later in life.

Rowling celebrated the court’s decision on social media with a cocktail in hand and puffing on a cigar onboard her superyacht, reportedly somewhere in the Bahamas. “I love it when a plan comes together,” she wrote on the social media platform X, borrowing the catchphrase from the popular 80s TV series The A-Team.

She added, referencing the bitter and polarised gender identification debate: “To those celebrating the fact that I’m smoking a blunt [a type of joint]: it’s a cigar. Even if it decided to identify as a blunt for the purposes of this celebration, it would remain objectively, provably, and demonstratively a cigar.”

In several posts on X, Rowling celebrated “terfs” and referred to the court ruling as “TERF VE Day,” a play on V-E Day, the formal end of World War II and Nazi occupation in Europe.

LONG PROCESS

Since 2019, Rowling has been labeled a “terf,” or “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” for her what critics see as her anti-trans views.

She suggested that changing one’s biological sex threatens her own gender identity.

However, LGBTQ+ rights group Stonewall expressed concern over the “far-reaching implications” of the ruling, calling it “deeply distressing” for the trans community.

Stonewall spokesperson Simon Blake noted that the court also made clear that the Equality Act still protects all trans people from discrimination.

Advocacy group Amnesty International also condemned the ruling, which is believed to have broader international implications.

Elsewhere in Europe, Hungary’s governing Fidesz party and allies passed a constitutional amendment this month stating that all Hungarians are “either male or female” and another protecting the “moral development” of children.

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