JK Rowling made the donation as soon as permission for the appeal was granted – SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE
JK Rowling has donated £70,000 to a feminist group to help its bid to obtain a “historic” Supreme Court ruling stating that men cannot become women.
The Harry Potter author pledged the cash to For Women Scotland, which is going to the UK’s highest court in a long-running legal battle with the Scottish Government over whether biological men can legally become female under UK law.
The group won an earlier case in which it was found that the SNP’s position that anyone who identified as a woman should be counted as one, for the purposes of gender quotas introduced for public boards, was unlawful.
However, it has lost a case which challenged rewritten guidance, which stated that biological men counted as women if they had acquired a gender recognition certificate (GRC) reflecting a female identity.
While the issue centres around Holyrood legislation intended to boost the number of women on public boards, the case will have wider ramifications for the legal status of trans people in Britain.
Supporters of For Women Scotland and the Scottish Feminist Network demonstrate outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh – LESLEY MARTIN/PA
Rowling donated the £70,000 sum within hours of the Scottish courts granting permission for the Supreme Court appeal. So far, more than £125,000 has been raised towards the group’s estimated costs of £200,000 in an online crowdfunder.
“You know how proud I am to know you,” Rowling wrote to the group in a message after she made the donation. “Thank you for all your hard work and perseverance. This is truly a historic case.”
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, she mocked trans activists who had criticised her for making the donation.
Some attacked her for not spending that cash on something else, and argued that if For Women Scotland succeeded the case would drastically erode the legal rights of trans people.
After one X user sarcastically said she bet Rowling hadn’t asked her husband’s permission first, she joked that he had told her that the money was “coming out of next week’s housekeeping allowance”.
‘Strong grounds’ for an appeal
In a controversial ruling in December 2022, the Scottish courts found that biological men can legally become women and share in their legal protections, if they obtain a GRC.
This is mainly because the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, UK-wide legislation, states that the documents mean a person becomes a member of their “acquired” sex “for all purposes”.
However, For Women Scotland argues this was superseded by the 2010 Equality Act, in which trans women and women are treated as two protected, but distinct, groups.
The later legislation allows even trans women with GRCs to be excluded from some women’s spaces and activities, if certain conditions are met.
For Women Scotland said it had obtained legal advice indicating that it had “strong grounds” for an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Scottish Government did not oppose the application to appeal, conceding there were “arguable points of law of general public importance”.
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