‘Equality means more than passing laws’

We are living through a global period of regression when it comes to human rights. One of the latest setbacks (at the time of writing) is from the UK Supreme Court, which in April 2025 shared the ruling that its definition of a woman in the Equality Act does not include transgender women and refers only to ‘biological women’.

This historic ruling has already set back the rights of transgender people, and like almost all backsliding on matters of equality, has implications for the rights of other people too; cisgender people who are not perceived as such for example, including women who do not look traditionally ‘feminine’.