Yasmine Ahmed, head of the Observatory in the UK, stressed that the decision opens the door to the exclusion of trans people from essential services, such as toilets and safe spaces, creating dangerous legal and social precedents. Despite the official admission that trans people continue to be protected from discrimination, the decision itself fails — as noted — to specify how this protection will be ensured in practice.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has already issued interim guidance recommending the exclusion of transgender women from women’s restrooms. Reactions have been swift: doctors, organizations, lawyers, and activists are denouncing it as an institutional setback and an attack on basic dignity.

Ahmed was clear: “Parliament must intervene. The law must be amended to make it clear that transgender people with a gender identity certificate are fully protected.” In the same vein, the British Medical Association called the decision “scientifically illiterate.”

The case was initiated by the organization For Women Scotland – with obvious connections to author JK Rowling – and was directed against the Scottish government, reacting to the earlier decision by Judge Lady Haldane that had expanded the concept of gender beyond biology.

The UK, which once prided itself as a global leader in LGBTQ+ rights, now faces the stigma of a harsh setback — at a time when empathy and inclusion should not be questioned, but protected as self-evident values.