DOCTORS at the British Medical Association (BMA) have branded the Supreme Court's gender ruling as "scientifically illiterate".
The union branch representing resident doctors, made up of around 50,000 medics previously known as junior doctors, passed a motion on Saturday criticising the judgment as "reductive" and "biologically nonsensical".
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that "women" were defined by biological sex under the Equality Act 2010, meaning that trans women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if "proportionate".
Both Prime Minister Keir Starmer and First Minister John Swinney have accepted the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling, saying that it brings "clarity".
Yet campaigners have raised concerns that the court did not consider how such an outcome would impact the lives of trans people, with the UK's only trans judge announcing that she is planning on taking the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as the court failed to consider human rights arguments.
The "interim guidance" published on Friday by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) – the UK's equalities watchdog – has also been branded "careless" by a former solicitor for the commission.
Doctors with the BMA argued that a straightforward binary divide between sex and gender "has no basis in science or medicine while being actively harmful to transgender and gender-diverse people".
The union branch said it “condemns scientifically illiterate rulings from the Supreme Court, made without consulting relevant experts and stakeholders, that will cause real-world harm to the trans, non-binary and intersex communities in this country".
The full text of the motion reads: "This meeting condemns the Supreme Court ruling defining the term 'woman' with respect to the Equality Act as being based on 'biological sex', which they refer to as a person who 'was at birth of the female sex', as reductive, trans and intersex-exclusionary and biologically nonsensical.
"We recognize as doctors that sex and gender are complex and multifaceted aspects of the human condition and attempting to impose a rigid binary has no basis in science or medicine while being actively harmful to transgender and gender diverse people. As such this meeting:
"i: Reiterates the BMA's position on affirming the rights of transgender and non-binary individuals to live their lives with dignity, having their identity respected.
"ii. Reminds the Supreme Court of the existence of intersex people and reaffirms their right to exist in the gender identity that matches their sense of self, regardless of whether this matches any identity assigned to them at birth.
"iii. Condemns scientifically illiterate rulings from the Supreme Court, made without consulting relevant experts and stakeholders, that will cause real-world harm to the trans, non-binary and intersex communities in this country.
"iv. Commits to strive for better access to necessary health services for trans, non-binary and gender-diverse people."
While the motion passed at the BMA's Resident Doctor Committee conference on Saturday, it is understood that the BMA's official position will not be decided until a conference in June.
Last year, the BMA became the only medical organisation in the UK to reject the findings of the Cass Review into the provision of gender identity services for young people.
The union also called for a ban on prescribing puberty blockers for under-18s to be lifted.
A BMA spokesperson said: "Attendees at the BMA's resident doctors conference voted to show their opposition to the Supreme Court ruling on Saturday. However, BMA-wide policy is set at the Annual Representative Meeting (ARM), with the next meeting coming in June.
"The BMA respects trans patients' dignity, autonomy, and human rights and continues to believe that trans doctors, NHS workers and patients deserve dignity, safety, and equitable access to healthcare and healthcare facilities."
