She believes it makes matters “much more dangerous”
A transgender ex-judge has vowed to take the UK government to the European Court of Human Rights in France.
Dr. Victoria McCloud, who boasts an official Gender Recognition Certificate – meaning her acquired female gender is present on her birth certificate – and is now three decades into her trans chapter, was forced to step down as High Court Master in 2024 after being singled out for abuse.
Reacting to the controversial Supreme Court ruling that defines women by biological sex under equalities law, the 55-year-old said (via BBC): “Trans people were wholly excluded from this court case. I applied to be heard. Two of us did. We were refused.
“[The court] heard no material going to the question of the proportionality and the impact on trans people. It didn’t hear evidence from us. The Supreme Court failed in my view, adequately, to think about human rights points.”
At their own discretion, courts can consider arguments from external “interveners”, yet judges tend to not use them if others can provide all the relevant perspectives.
McCloud and fellow campaigners will travel to the Strasbourg-based court to demand a declaration that the government’s actions “violate” their “fundamental human rights”.
“Just as the Prime Minister didn’t know what a woman was, actually the Supreme Court don’t know because they haven’t defined biological sex,” she continued. “The answer [in my view] is that a woman in law is someone with the letter F on her birth certificate.”
According to her, this confusion could open the door to all sorts of exploitation from predatory figures.
“This is going to make matters much, much more dangerous,” argued McCloud. “I am now expected to use male spaces.
“I have female anatomy. It isn’t safe for women to use the men’s loos. It is as simple as that.”
