Before April 15, Glasgow-based academic, healthcare activist and punk musician Dr. Ruth Pearce wrote that she was “widely perceived to be a British lesbian, both legally and socially.” However, following a U.K. Supreme Court ruling on that day, she, along with countless other trans women, could no longer be considered lesbians under British law.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd. v. The Scottish Ministers sparked outrage across the country by declaring that the legal definition of a woman or a man under the Equality Act 2010 relies solely on “biological” sex, an oft-criticized term that in this case refers to one’s sex assigned at birth. In the month following the ruling, thousands of people across the country have taken to the streets in protest, recognizing the dire threat to trans safety in the U.K.
The case also held significant implications for lesbian communities. When defining gender by so-called biological sex, the ruling further defined a lesbian as a “biological woman” attracted only to other “biological women.” Previous government documents, such as a report on conversion therapy published by the Government Equalities Office, defined “lesbian” as a woman attracted to people of the same sex or gender. Interim guidance on applying the law from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) further attacked trans people’s ability to participate in lesbian and gay spaces. It stated that lesbian or gay-men-only associations of more than 25 people should not include trans women or trans men respectively. The LGB Alliance, which has long campaigned for trans exclusion in the U.K., heralded the verdict as a “historic victory for lesbians.”
Lesbian author and LGBTQ+ advocate Ellen Jones describes the ruling on lesbian identity as an “overreach” by the court.
“That’s just completely not how many lesbians identify, [and] it erases the existence of trans people in lesbian communities,” she tells Xtra, adding that “lesbian communities have long histories of trans inclusion and gender nonconformity.” Her 2025 book Outrage charts the history and current struggles for LGBTQ+ rights in the U.K.
Trans-exclusive and gender-critical campaigners, including the LGB Alliance, have long attempted to foster division between trans and lesbian communities, notably by positioning trans people as threats to cis lesbians. This rhetoric involves arguments that trans women are “pressuring” cis lesbians into having sex with them, or that lesbians as a category are “disappearing” because they’re transitioning into trans men or non-binary people (whom they assume cannot identify as lesbians) based on purely anecdotal evidence.
For Pearce, this is “absolutely a divide-and-rule tactic” to break the long-standing solidarity between trans and lesbian communities. She points to how the EHRC’s guidance restricting trans presence in lesbian organizations can further prevent these communities from organizing together.
Polling of the queer community shows that cis lesbians are one of the demographics most accepting of trans people. A 2023 poll from the online research group YouGov shows that 84 percent of British cis lesbian and bisexual women held a positive view of trans people, while a study by the UK LGBTQ+ youth charity Just Like Us found that 96 percent of young adult lesbians were “supportive” or “very supportive.”
“The minority of gay women in the LGB Alliance are such a minority within wider lesbian communities,” says Pearce. “The fact that they’ve felt the need to bring the power of the state down on their own community is a sign of how out of touch they are.”
A stepping stone to further repression
Jones emphasizes that the present anti-trans policies are a “stepping stone” to further attacks on queer and other marginalized communities. If the EHRC guidance becomes law, she anticipates chilling repercussions for queer organizations.
“If they were to legislate the exclusion of trans people from queer spaces, it would force queer spaces underground again, because we will not exclude trans people, and we won’t be able to operate legally,” she explains.
Oran, a London-based event organizer who prefers to go by their first name only, confirms that trans inclusion is a core element of the events they run. They previously organized trans sauna and Pop-Up Dyke Bar events, but currently run a dinner event called Booters, a butch version of Hooters.
“The whole point of Booters is to showcase the huge variety of genders and presentations and identities and body types that can fall under the butch label,” explains Oran. They argue that there’s a lot of overlap between butches and trans people, as “you’re kind of a gender deviant and treated with suspicion.”
Lesbian event organizers like Oran are no strangers to operating under difficult circumstances. Oran says that they and their colleagues are accustomed to running events on a shoestring budget, and point out that “queer community events have always existed outside of legislation.”
Nevertheless, they acknowledge that the ruling validates transphobia among the general population, which is taking an emotional toll on both event organizers and attendees.
Pearce agrees that although many of the underground queer spaces she frequents will remain trans-inclusive, more mainstream organizations such as sports leagues, university groups and worker affinity groups are likely to be targeted.
“It’s going to empower any transphobic person who wants to disrupt that group, or for that matter, homophobic person who wants to disrupt the group, because all you have to do is have someone say, ‘This is an illegal lesbian group because it includes trans people,’” she explained. Anti-trans campaigner and billionaire J.K. Rowling has already launched a fund pledging to cover legal costs for cis women looking to exclude trans women from women’s spaces.
Furthermore, the ruling encourages intensified policing of gender from both police and the general public. Immediately following the ruling, the British transport police announced that any strip searches of trans women would be done by male officers. And people of all genders have reported increased scrutiny based on their gender presentation when using public toilets.
“It’s actually making a lot of us feel scared to express ourselves in ways that are non-conforming in any way,” says Jones, arguing that if someone isn’t carrying ID, there’s no way for them to “prove” their gender if questioned by police. She points out that police can’t tell if someone is trans or not, and are likely to make assumptions based on whether someone’s presentation aligns with stereotypical, Eurocentric ideas of femininity.
“This is why it’s an attack on all of us,” says Pearce. “It’s saying that only a certain womanhood is acceptable and everything else is open to challenge.”
Collective resistance
Lesbian communities are not standing by as the U.K. government further erodes trans rights. In Scotland, the grassroots group Glasgow Lesbian Avengers, a group devoted to fighting transphobia, and the print newsletter Dyke News Scotland both circulate actions that people can take to defend trans rights, such as attending protests, contacting MPs and donating to legal challenges or personal fundraisers. In London, a collective of 30+ queer event organizers, including Oran, have pledged to keep their events inclusive and to stand against state-mandated transphobia. The London Dyke March has taken a firm stance in support of trans rights, which will undoubtedly be a central demand at their upcoming march on June 21. Furthermore, organizers of the U.K.’s largest Pride events in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Brighton banned the participation of political parties in solidarity with the trans community.
Other queer- and trans-led initiatives have emerged to provide avenues for resistance. The team behind Sissy Anarchy, a queer anarchist publication, have designed the Trans Bathroom Access Sticker, which businesses can use to show that their bathrooms are safe and accessible to trans people. The Trans Legal Clinic launched carry cards with responses for people to say when challenged about using the bathroom, and the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance sells “Maybe I’m Trans?” pins to confuse the bathroom police and challenge the notion that it’s shameful to be assumed to be trans.
Lesbian and queer resistance to transphobic legislation is not simply a case of one group standing by another, says Pearce. Rather, it’s a collective resistance anchored in an understanding that trans and non-binary people form an integral part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Jones also recognizes parallels between contemporary transphobia and historic perceptions of lesbians. “I think that people don’t remember that for a long period of time, there was even a discussion of if lesbians were women, and if lesbians were welcome in women’s spaces,” she says.
The fight to protect trans rights is far from over. The EHRC interim guidance is not yet law, as the organization is currently conducting consultations to set guidelines for how organizations should apply the law in practice. Campaigners from the human rights groups Liberty and the Good Law Project are taking the EHRC to court on the basis that the interim guidance breaches the U.K.’s obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights. Protests are still taking place around the country, including a five-day occupation outside the EHRC offices by direct action group Trans Kids Deserve Better and a mass lobbying campaign by the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance. Pearce herself has created a zine on “how to fight trans panic,” which encourages allies to write to politicians, resist anti-trans policies and support trans creators and organizations.
Even if the worst-case scenario occurs and the interim guidance becomes law, Pearce emphasizes that laws “only make sense if people uphold them.” People and organizations must be willing to fight for trans rights, and make the laws essentially impossible to enforce.
As Pearce puts it, “We need intentional, aggressive, extremely homosexual non-compliance.”
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