Thousands of people on Saturday rallied in London and Edinburgh in support of trans rights, after a landmark UK court ruling on the definition of a “woman.”
The British Supreme Court on Wednesday last week ruled that the legal definition of a “woman” is based on a person’s sex at birth, with potentially far-reaching consequences for how single-sex spaces and services are run.
Outside the UK parliament in London, activists, protesters, trade unions and community groups waved flags and held up banners with slogans such as “trans women are women” and “trans rights are human rights.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
“My main fear — the extremists will feel empowered by this decision,” said Eevee Zayas, a 32-year-old researcher from Spain, describing themself as non-binary transgender.
“Hate crimes against [the] trans community [will] go up,” Zayas added.
The court ruling said single-sex spaces and services including changing rooms, toilets and women-only hospital wards “will function properly only if sex is interpreted as biological sex.”
Joe Brown, a trans woman in the process of transitioning, said that “everything in the transition is going to be harder.”
“Coming here in big numbers is very important to stand against the Supreme Court decision,” Brown said.
Other fears included not being able to access healthcare and children being scared to come out as trans, Brown said.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it was investigating after seven statues “in the vicinity of the protest” were vandalized.
At least two statues in Parliament Square were daubed with graffiti during the rally including one of suffragette Millicent Fawcett, who was part of the campaign to secure the vote for women in the early part of the 20th century.
Last week’s court ruling followed a legal battle between the Scottish government and a campaign group For Women Scotland involving clashing interpretations of the Equality Act.
While the Scottish government argued that the law gave trans women with a Gender Recognition Certificate the same protections as a biological female, the campaign group disagreed.
In the Scottish capital Edinburgh, thousands more protesters marched.
Lauren Yeoman, 38, said she was “disgusted” by a ruling she felt effectively removed the human rights of trans people.
“We’re pointing fingers at people who aren’t harming anybody, such as trans people, while ignoring the real problems,” she said.
Speakers addressed the crowd using megaphones, and led the demonstrators in chants that included: “When trans rights are under attack, what do we do? Fight back.”
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS