It's one step forward two steps back for Peggie and sex-based rights

Her tribunal decides that a woman is defined by her"feminine" appearance not biology

After two years of intense debate, recrimination and angry public demonstrations, the Sandie Peggie Employment Tribunal has finally reported. It has ruled that Nurse Peggie had indeed been “harassed” by the hospital authorities after she complained about the presence of a male-bodied trans doctor in a women’s changing room. Compensation will no doubt follow.

This has been interpreted by her sympathisers, and by many in the UK media, as a victory for sex-based rights. However, it was one step forward, two steps back for Peggie and believers in biological essentialism. Far from clarifying the definition of a woman for the purpose of the law, this ruling appears to contradict the ruling from the Supreme Court. It has made the issue of what a woman is even more of a legal and political minefield.