I have been busy for a while curating the lent offerings over on the Proost blog… This included a wonderful poetry reading with Tim Watson and Hannah Caroe that I very much recommend.

What has been happening in the meantime? The lovely Pope died. Trump has continued Trumping. After a fragile ceasfire, Gaza became a killing field again where genocidal racists do their worst. The Labour government has made a scapegoat out of the poor, cutting benefits that were already slashed beyond the point where they could sustain healthy life… this list is dragging me down down down so I had better stop.

Another thing that happened was a that the High Court here in the UK made a ruling – based on an interpretation of existing law – that concluded long-running dispute between some feminist advocacy groups and the Scottish government. It has been an ugly dispute, and the organisation supporting the action (For Women Scotland) has been backed financially by author J K Rowling, herself a divisive figure in this area.

This from Al Jazeera, here.

On Wednesday, five judges ruled unanimously that the term “woman” in the existing UK Equality Act should be interpreted as only people born biologically female, and that trans women, even those with GRCs, should be excluded from that definition.

The ruling further clarified, therefore, that trans women can be excluded from certain single-sex spaces and groups designated for women, such as changing rooms, homeless and domestic violence shelters, swimming areas and medical or counselling services.

“Interpreting ‘sex’ as certificated sex would cut across the definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ … and, thus, the protected characteristic of sex, in an incoherent way,” Justice Patrick Hodge said while summarising the case. “It would create heterogeneous groupings.”

The court added that the ruling was not a “triumph” of one side over the other, and emphasised that transgender people are still protected from discrimination under UK law. However, some protections, the judges clarified, should only apply to biological females and not transgender women.

The campaign to limit the interpretation of sex has gathered much right-wing religious support, but I ave found it difficult to come to a clear view of this for myself. On the one hand, I see just how marginalised transgender people have been, and how dangerous this has been both in terms of violence and exclusion, but also suicide rates. On the other hand, the debate between different kinds of feminists was difficult to understand.

This ruling has forced me towards seeking deeper understanding. Where to start?

I could dig into the biology- which is far from conclusive. This from Steve Chalke via X

Yesterday’s Supreme Court’s ruling was not based on science. Sex determination is not ‘self-explanatory’. Sex is not simply about genitals, but also sex chromosomes & DNA. Courts used to declare it was ‘self-explanatory’ that being gay was a perversion. They were wrong then too! I stand with trans people, made, like me, in God’s image! #NOLO

Then along came a brand new album by Derek Webb. It broke me. Called Survival Songs, it is an album offering love and acceptance to the gay and trans community.

This album did not ‘change’ my mind, but it solidified it.

Given a choice, I will stand with those who are marginalised and excluded.

Here is the album in full