LGBTQ+ people are facing growing levels of violence, harassment and exclusion following the UK Supreme Court’s controversial ruling on gender, according to a stark new report by advocacy group TransActual.
The report — Trans segregation in practice: Experiences of trans segregation following the Supreme Court ruling — was released on Tuesday (19 August) and gathers testimony from trans people as well as cis and intersex individuals who do not conform to conventional gender expectations.
The ruling and its aftermath
In April 2025, the UK’s Supreme Court issued an 88-page judgment ruling that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer only to biological sex. The case, brought by gender-critical group For Women Scotland (FWS) and supported by author JK Rowling, effectively excluded trans people from sex-based protections under the Act. Rowling hailed the decision as “TERF VE Day.”
Following the ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issued draft guidance urging service providers to bar trans people from single-sex facilities such as bathrooms, wards, and sports competitions. It also suggested that in “some circumstances” trans people could be excluded even from spaces aligned with their sex at birth, such as if a trans man appeared “too masculine.”
A leaked version of the EHRC’s final guidance, reported by The Times last week, confirmed the policy is set to expand bans across key services and facilities.
Experiences of exclusion and harassment
TransActual’s findings reveal how the ruling has translated into real-world hostility. Participants reported being denied bathroom access, outed at work, filmed without consent, physically assaulted, and excluded from social groups.
- One trans woman recounted:
“I was denied access to a female lounge because of being transgender. I felt upset, alienated and othered… The patients were outraged on my behalf. I felt like a hole had opened up, that I was a freak and not right for society.” - A trans man said his gym barred him from both men’s and women’s changing rooms, restricting him to a family changing space:
“It made me feel like I’m being segregated and pushed out of a space based on my gender and trans status. I felt like they are saying I’m not a real man. After that, I no longer wanted to use the space.” - A cis butch lesbian, misgendered in a women’s toilet, described the humiliation:
“I felt invalid and embarrassed… It’s sad that at 47 I’m back to my life and appearance being a political statement in the UK.”
“A bigot’s charter”
Keyne Walker, Strategy Director for TransActual, said the report shows that the ruling and the EHRC’s stance have encouraged bullying and exclusion.
“The Supreme Court, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the government have all claimed to care about the dignity and safety of women and trans people. This report proves that by taking the approach of segregation they are failing in that,” Walker said.
They continued:
“The guidance is already having a dire effect — not just on trans people, but also anyone who might be ‘suspected’ of being trans. Organisations that would like to support trans people claim their hands are tied. Meanwhile, the guidance is acting as a bigot’s charter, creating confrontation on a daily basis that threatens to drive LGBTQ+ people out of work and public spaces.”
Walker criticised the Supreme Court ruling as “eccentric and at odds with Equality Law as it has operated over the past 15 years.” They argued the EHRC could have chosen a less extreme interpretation instead of enforcing automatic segregation based on an “anti-scientific and undefined binary of biological sex.”
