Liberals on both sides of the Atlantic let out a collective wail of despair as the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom officially ruled that biological men are not to be considered women under the law.
The shock ruling is the fruit of a hard-fought legal battle brought by For Women Scotland, an anti-trans feminist organization.
The case turned on the interpretation of "woman" in the Equality Act, a comprehensive civil rights law passed by Parliament in 2010.
The unanimous verdict is a rare victory for common sense over the leftist ideology that has sowed confusion about biological truths throughout Western societies.
In the United States, a backlash against "woke" ideology has been credited as a factor in the Democrats' devastating wipeout last November, and some ambitious Democrats have started to distance themselves from the transgender movement and its absolutist demands.
President Trump has fought to defend women's sports under Title IX, a civil rights law that bars sex-based discrimination in education. Title IX was repurposed during the Biden presidency to include gender identity.
The Supreme Court of the U.K. ruled that defining "sex" as a chosen identity certified by paperwork leads to "incoherent" and impractical consequences.
"The practical problems that arise under a certificated sex approach are clear indicators that this interpretation is not correct," the judges wrote.
The court's decision means that single-sex spaces are protected under the Equality Act. The ruling does not disturb anti-discrimination protections relating to gender reassignment, the court said.
"The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex," said Justice Patrick Hodge.
"But we counsel against reading this judgement as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another, it is not."
Many British women responded to the court's ruling with euphoria.
"Today the judges have said what we always believed to be the case, that women are protected by their biological sex," For Women Scotland co-founder Susan Smith said.
"Sex is real and women can now feel safe that services and spaces designated for women are for women and we are enormously grateful to the Supreme Court for this ruling."
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling wrote, "It took three extraordinary, tenacious Scottish women with an army behind them to get this case heard by the Supreme Court and, in winning, they've protected the rights of women and girls across the UK."
It is remarkable that it required a Supreme Court case to vindicate the simple reality that men are not women, but it's a step in the right direction.
