JULIE BINDEL: Today our intercourse dangers being obliterated

What is a woman? What is a girl? We know that a child as young as six months can differentiate between the sexes – yet some senior politicians, trans activists, and well-meaning (if idiotic) liberals claim to be not so sure.

In fact, the idea that someone who was born, and has grown up, male can become a ‘woman’ via medical and legal interventions has become so entrenched in these circles, that five of the highest judges in the land now have to debate ‘what a woman is’. 

 Make no mistake, absolutely everyone already knows the answer. 

But trans extremism has been so effective in bullying individuals and institutions into holding the official view that ‘trans women are women’ that the task has, unfortunately, become urgent.

Today the Supreme Court, in a landmark case brought by the feminist organisation For Women Scotland against the Scottish government, must answer the question: Should a person with a ‘female’ Gender Recognition Certificate, be recognised as a woman for the purposes of the Equality Act?

Trans activists think the answer should be ‘yes’, and in recent years – thanks to lobbying by charities like Stonewall, the legislation has been interpreted accordingly.

The court must decide whether acquiring a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) changes the sex of a person under the 2010 Equality Act. Women like me firmly argue it does not. 

But according to the Scottish government, anyone born male and having a GRC becomes ‘female’.Stonewall and other trans rights organisations have misinterpreted the Equality Act, but – as Kemi Badenoch famously said during a debate in Parliament on self-identification, ‘Stonewall does not decide the law in this country’.

For Women Scotland argue that a GRC held by a male person should not grant that person access to female-only spaces and jobs. 

A member of the Scottish Family Party clashes with a proponent of gender recognition reform outside Holyrood in Edinburgh

Today the Supreme Court must decide whether acquiring a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) changes the sex of a person under the 2010 Equality Act. Women like me firmly argue it does not, writes JULIE BINDEL

JK Rowling sharing the Sex Matters petition to protect single sex spaces such as domestic violence refuges and prisons

Again and again, we have seen the devastating consequences of men being legally allowed to identify as women, most recently the British Transport Police policy which allows trans-identified male officers with a GRC to conduct intimate searches on female detainees.

Men have ended up in domestic violence refuges, and even rape crisis centres. Look at Edinburgh Rape Crisis, where victims were told: ‘There are no men here.’ 

In fact, a male was not only present, but in charge of the organisation.

Meanwhile, lesbians like me have to put up with men claiming to be – not just women, but lesbian women – in our social and online networks. 

Women in sports teams, swimming pools, even breastfeeding support groups have had to stay silent as biological males – legally – invade their ‘single-sex’ spaces.I know the importance of these spaces. 

As a young feminist, I joined a women-only support group for women who had experienced sexual assault. I did so because I was one of them, and felt deep shame about it. The stigma is almost always on the victim, and not the perpetrator.

Women have had to stay silent as biological males legally invade their single-sex spaces including breastfeeding groups (file photo)

At that time, I was also in a group of young lesbians, because, in the early 1980s, it was hard to be out and proud in a hostile environment, with no legal protection and little public awareness.

Again, I was able to draw strength and solidarity from this group – but had a male been sitting there it would have made it impossible to connect to the other women. 

You don’t have to be a feminist to appreciate female-only spaces, but you do have to be a misogynist to wish to invade them.

Amnesty International, backing the Scottish government, says the court must protect the rights of a ‘minority group’ – meaning biological males claiming to be women.In doing so, it puts men’s feelings above the safety and rights of women and girls. 

If the judges listen to this group and conclude that having a ‘female’ GRC is enough to be deemed a woman under the law, then the very basis of women’s rights – our sex – is obliterated.