{"id":31677,"date":"2025-04-19T01:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T01:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31677\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T01:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T01:33:12","slug":"hundreds-take-to-manchester-city-streets-in-trans-rights-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31677\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds take to Manchester city streets in trans rights march"},"content":{"rendered":"

The protest comes after the UK\u2019s Supreme Court ruled this week that the terms \u2018woman\u2019 and \u2018sex\u2019 in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sexCrowds gathered on St Peter\u2019s Square for a rally calling for \u2018rights for trans people\u2019 today (Image: Jake Lindley \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people took to Manchester city streets in an impromptu protest march.<\/p>\n

Crowds gathered on St Peter\u2019s Square for a rally calling for \u2018rights for trans people\u2019 today (April 18). The protest comes after the UK\u2019s Supreme Court ruled this week that the terms \u2018woman\u2019 and \u2018sex\u2019 in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex.<\/p>\n

Some campaigners hailed the court ruling as a victory. But others, including those in St Peter\u2019s Square today, have called it a \u2018frightening\u2019 moment for trans people and the wider LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n

In Manchester city centre<\/a>, hundreds came with pro-trans flags and signs to watch and hear speeches by trans activists.<\/p>\n

Manchester\u2019s first openly trans councillor, Chris Northwood, spoke of the rally: “Today’s protest is a reflection of the fear and strength of solidarity in the trans community. The ruling and subsequent comments by the Equality and Human Rights Commission have caused hurt and upset with many people understandably scared for any negative impact which may remove hard won rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cManchester is a proudly progressive city with a rich history of standing up against persecution and today’s demonstration shows that strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of pro-trans campaigners gathered in St Peter\u2019s Square(Image: Jake Lindley \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Those leading the speeches on the square said they \u2018wished [the ruling] was an act of ignorance, a simple case of stupidity\u2019, adding \u2018but this was not ignorance \u2013 this was planned and funded, done with a vested interest in dragging feminism back to the 19th century\u2019.<\/p>\n

In a long-awaited judgment delivered on Wednesday, the court confirmed the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act \u201crefer to a biological woman and biological sex\u201d. This means transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces if \u201cproportionate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Campaigners said the Supreme Court\u2019s judgment could have far-reaching consequences for sports and single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and hospital wards.<\/p>\n

The government has said the unanimous decision by five judges brought \u201cclarity and confidence\u201d for women and service providers.<\/p>\n

The crowds took to the streets in an impromptu march down Oxford Street (Image: Jake Lindley \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Following this week\u2019s ruling, the LGB Alliance charity said the ruling was a \u201cvictory for biology, for common sense, for reality\u201d and that it made clear lesbian clubs can lawfully exclude trans women who have a GRC.<\/p>\n

The Sex Matters group, which had made arguments in the case, said the ruling means sports bodies now have \u201cno excuses\u201d for continuing to allow transgender women to compete in female categories.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, LGBT charity Stonewall, while recognising this in the ruling, said there is \u201cdeep concern\u201d around the consequences of the judgment, which it said is \u201cincredibly worrying for the trans community\u201d.<\/p>\n

Protests have broken out across the country following the Supreme Court decision mid-week to define sex as biological in the Equality Act(Image: Jake Lindley \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s rally in Manchester heard from one speaker: \u201cThis is an attack on women as well as trans people, it\u2019s anyone who doesn\u2019t fit into [the court\u2019s] definition of a woman \u2013 obedient, submissive, feminine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said that \u2018people are here from across the political spectrum and what unites us is that trans rights are human rights\u2019, while another speaker continued: \u201cWe are not asking for superhuman rights, we\u2019re asking to be recognised as people and to have the same rights as everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coun Northwood added: \u201cAs a Liberal Democrat councillor I’m proud to represent a party that rejects the false idea that trans rights and women’s rights are in conflict, and in the council chamber will continue to champion trans rights alongside that of residents in Ancoats and Beswick.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir Starmer and the Labour<\/a> government must now answer questions about what the impact of this ruling means to end this fear and uncertainty, and must ensure that it does not lead to any erosion of the hard won rights of trans people.”<\/p>\n

NHS officials have confirmed they will consider the ruling as they update guidance on same-sex hospital wards(Image: Jake Lindley \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

After more than an hour of speeches this afternoon, the crowds took to the streets in an impromptu march down Oxford Street and on through Manchester\u2019s Gay Village, finishing with chants in Sackville Gardens. Police officers quickly moved to close off busy roads as the march made its way across the city for around 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Organiser Emily Chomicz told the Manchester Evening News that many more people had turned out than expected saying: \u201cOur community is demoralised, has been beaten down, and torn to pieces. We have no option but to stand and fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their judgment, the justices said providers of single-sex spaces including changing rooms, homeless hostels and medical services would face \u201cpractical difficulties\u201d if the word \u201csex\u201d was interpreted as being wider than just biological sex in the 2010 legislation.<\/p>\n

The judges, in the case brought by campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) against the Scottish Government, said: \u201cRead fairly and in context, the provisions relating to single-sex services can only be interpreted by reference to biological sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

NHS<\/a> officials have confirmed they will consider the ruling as they update guidance on same-sex hospital wards. Current NHS England guidance on the issue is laid out in a document from 2019 which says that ‘trans people should be accommodated according to their presentation: the way they dress, and the name and pronouns they currently use’.<\/p>\n

The judges said transgender people are still protected from discrimination, and ‘would be able to invoke the provisions on direct discrimination and harassment, and indirect discrimination’ if needed.<\/p>\n

The justices also said that trans people are protected from discrimination on the grounds of gender reassignment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The protest comes after the UK\u2019s Supreme Court ruled this week that the terms \u2018woman\u2019 and \u2018sex\u2019 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,30,393,4884,8526,5763,2465,8086,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-31677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-lgbtq-rights","13":"tag-lgbtq","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-manchester-city-centre","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114362057037338242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}