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It's time to recognise the third gender, by Shokti

15 countries around the world legally recognise a third, non-binary gender. Unfortunately the UK did not become the 16th this week. 'Trans Women are Not Women' scream the right wing press headlines, ignoring the fact that the UK Supreme Court did not rule on this question. The Court was clarifying whether references to sex in the Equality Act of 2010 referred to biological sex. A decision made without any representation from trans people!

In fact paragraph 2 of the judgment clearly states: “It is not the role of the court to adjudicate on the arguments in the public domain on the meaning of gender or sex, nor is it to define the meaning of the word ‘woman’ other than when it is used in the provisions of the [Equality Act] 2010.” Yet the right wing press is having a field day, pictures of women celebrating outside court accompanying the headline. This is very revealing, and I hope it will strike home hard to the gay, lesbian, bi community how important it is we stand together with trans people against a tide of populist propaganda, fear-mongering and ignorance.