Glossary

• Bellinger v Bellinger

  Members of the House of Lords were invited to declare a marriage valid which had been entered into by a man and a transwoman. They declined to do so.  Bellinger v Bellinger [2003] UKHL 21,...

• Castellucci v Gender Recognition Panel

  R (Castellucci) v Gender Recognition Panel [2024] EWHC 54 (Admin), [2024] KB 995

• Corbett v Corbett

  Corbett v Corbett (otherwise Ashley) [1971] P 83 The High Court declared that a marriage was null and void where both parties were biological males but one (known as April Ashley) had undergone gender reassignment....

• Disorders of sex development (DSDs)

  (also known as differences of sex development or intersex conditions) In 98–99 percent of all births, the baby’s genitals and internal reproductive organs have developed entirely normally. The baby’s sex is easy to tell from...

• Equality Act

  The UK Government's Equality Act 2010.

• European Convention on Human Rights

  A common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations, drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world and agreed by the United Nations General Assembly in...

• Forstater v CGD Europe

  Employment Tribunal (2019): Maya Forstater v CGD Europe & Another [2019] UKET 2200909/2019. Employment Appeal Tribunal (2021): Forstater v CGD Europe [2021] ICR 1, EAT Employment Tribunal judgment (2022): Forstater v CGD Europe and others [2022] UKET 2200909/2019 and...

• Gender

  The word “gender” is often used as a synonym for “sex”, but it has more than one meaning, and this can cause confusion. In much feminist theory, gender is a value system that places maleness...

• Gender dysphoria

  Gender dysphoria is the misery caused when someone feels that their sex is mismatched with their gender identity. But the definition has changed over time: in 1978 the International Classification of Diseases included “transsexualism” in...

• Gender-identity ideology

  Gender-identity ideology, or gender-identity theory, is the claim that everyone has an inner "gender identity", and that when a person’s beliefs about their gender identity conflict with their biological sex, it is the gender identity that...

• Goodwin v United Kingdom

  Goodwin v United Kingdom (Application No 28957/95) (2002) 35 EHRR 18 The applicant’s biological sex was male but he had undergone gender reassignment surgery. The European Court of Human Rights held that it was a...

• GRA (Gender Recognition Act)

  The UK Government's Gender Recognition Act 2004.

• Grant v United Kingdom

  Grant v United Kingdom (Application No 32570/03) (2006) 44 EHRR 1

• Medical transition

  Clinicians may prescribe cross-sex hormones: the male hormone testosterone for females desiring to look more like men; the female hormone oestrogen for males seeking to look more like women. But: sex hormones do not have...

• Puberty

  Puberty is the physical process that turns a child into an adult capable of reproduction. It is a crucial developmental period, during which cognitive processes and every part of the body change and mature. This...

• Puberty blockers

  Puberty is the process of physical development that turns children into adults capable of reproduction. Puberty blockers are powerful drugs – developed and tested for other uses – that disrupt this process by stopping the...

• Public-sector equality duty

  This is section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.

• Sex change

  For humans, as for all mammals, it is impossible to change sex. It is possible to look more like a member of the opposite sex by using cosmetic or prosthetic aids (temporary and reversible) or...

• Supreme Court judgment

  The court held that the terms “man”, “woman” and “sex” in the EA 2010 refer to biological sex. This was a unanimous judgment on 16th April 2025 on For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish...