 of 'inventing' the concept of legal sex. Mr O'Neill said that should Scottish ministers succeed in establishing that a transgender woman with a GRC is legally a woman, it would open up an 'Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole' which could threaten single-sex spaces. He told the Court of Session in Edinburgh: 'You only fall into this rabbit hole of Alice in Wonderland if you insist that sex means certificated sex rather than biological sex. What this case is about isn't biological determinism, but biological denialism. 'The EHRC say it's within the competence of a sovereign parliament to do whatever it wants, rather like King Canute ordering the waves to return or perhaps to repeal the law of gravity. 'It can do what it wants. But it doesn't change things, in the real world, when it comes to physical, natural, biological facts.' Latest chapter in gender reform saga Earlier this year, Scottish judges backed For Women Scotland in a ruling, when they stated that SNP ministers had gone beyond their powers by seeking to 'redefine' women to include all trans women in workplace quotas. The Scottish Government rewrote its guidance, but stated that trans women who hold a GRC would still be counted as female. Mr O'Neill accused Scottish ministers of attempting to 'get around' the earlier ruling in an attempt to show they were 'wonderfully gender reassignment inclusive'. A GRC allows holders to obtain a new birth certificate reflecting their acquired gender but it 'hasn't changed your chromosomes', he said. The 2004 law states that holders of a GRC should be legally recognised as a member of their 'acquired gender'. However, the 201){kind=link}
Legal challenge against Nicola Sturgeon’s ministers begins with feminist group pushing for trans reforms to be quashed
Nicola Sturgeon’s government has been accused in court of “biological denialism” by feminist campaigners who invited Scottish judges to rule that transgender people cannot change their sex.
In a case that will set a legal precedent across the UK, the campaign group For Women Scotland is attempting to have quashed guidance issued by SNP ministers, stating that transgender women who hold a gender recognition certificate (GRC) should be counted as female in gender quotas for public boards.
The ruling is likely to have far wider implications beyond the Holyrood equality legislation, passed in 2018, as it will help establish how the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, which first allowed people in the UK to obtain legal recognition of their transgender status, interacts with the 2010 Equality Act.
It will also shed light on the legal rights that a GRC, which SNP ministers are trying to make far easier for Scots to obtain, bestows on those who hold them.