By LifeSiteNews (Politics) | Created at 2026-06-22 17:31:22 | Updated at 2026-06-23 21:58:40
1 day ago
(LifeSiteNews) — The Scottish government has lost a major legal battle over the legality of housing gender-confused men in women’s prisons.
On Friday, a judge ruled that housing so-called “transgender” men in women’s prisons violated a previous Supreme Court decision that said a person’s gender is to be determined by what their biological sex is at birth.
In her opinion ruling, Judge Lady Ross stated the government’s prison guidance to mix men and women was “unlawful.”
“Insofar as the Prisons Guidance allows [the Scottish Prison Service] to accommodate trans prisoners in prisons for the opposite biological sex, it is in conflict with the requirement that prison accommodation be provided separately for men and women,” Judge Ross wrote in the opinion.
“In all the circumstances, the Prisons Guidance is unlawful. There is no positive obligation, in general terms … to accommodate a trans prisoner in a prison for the opposite biological sex.”
The ruling is aligned with a United Kingdom Supreme Court decision last April that defined the term “woman” as being a person whose biological sex is female, not what they subjectively “identify” as. This decision was made after several years of abuse by the Scottish government in assigning convicted male rapists to female prisons to fulfill their wishes of identifying as female.
One such case in 2021 saw a dozen male sex offenders being transferred to female prisons, most of them without even receiving “gender-altering” surgery.
The plaintiffs in the case, For Women Scotland, released a statement applauding the judge’s decision to uphold the law of the land.
“We are delighted to have won such a comprehensive victory,” said the organization. “All the arguments from the Scottish Ministers were comprehensively rejected by the court, not least their claim that housing trans-identified male prisoners in the male estate would breach their Convention rights.”
The organization concluded its statement by expressing hope that no further legal challenges to the law would succeed, arguing that the measure is necessary to protect the rights of women.
“We should never have needed to take this case and we hope this will be the last time that we are forced to go to law to defend the rights of women,” wrote For Women Scotland. “Ultimately, this is a victory for the very vulnerable women in the prison estate.”
