Progressive Democrats and leftists worldwide have been shocked and angered by the growing societal, political, and even legal pushback against their absurdly anti-scientific insistence that transgender women, biological males who identify as female, be treated and viewed the same as actual women.

The left is now seething after the U.K.'s Supreme Court ruled unanimously that, at least as far as the nation's anti-discrimination law is concerned, "women" are defined by their biological sex and not the gender they identify as, the BBC reported.

That common-sense ruling, begrudgingly accepted by the Scottish government, was denounced for its "concerning implications" by bitter trans-rights activists but was hailed as the only proper decision by virtually everybody else.

What is a "woman" in the U.K.?

In 2018, the Scottish Parliament passed a law requiring gender balance on public sector boards, but the Scottish government was sued by an advocacy group called For Women Scotland when it was realized that transgender women would count the same as biological women in terms of the law's quotas.

The Scottish government argued that the law aligns with the U.K.'s 2004 Gender Recognition Act, which allows transgender individuals to obtain a "gender recognition certificate" that ostensibly entitles them to all of the same benefits and protections as the biological sex they identify as.

The challengers asserted, however, that it violates the U.K.'s 2010 Equality Act, which provides anti-discrimination protections for a variety of "protected characteristics," which notably includes "gender reassignment" as being separate and apart from "sex," which is defined under the law as "a reference to a man or to a woman."

What did the judges say?

The case worked its way over the years to the U.K. Supreme Court, and the BBC reported this week that Judge Lord Hodge declared, "The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex."

He was quick to caution, however, "against reading this judgement as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another, it is not," and added that the Equality Act provides transgender individuals with "protection, not only against discrimination through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, and harassment in substance in their acquired gender."

Yet, the judges ruled that interpreting "certified" sex the same as "biological" sex under the law would "cut across the definitions of man and woman and thus the protected characteristic of sex in an incoherent way," and further observed that "similar confusion and impracticability" had undermined single-sex spaces for women like in the armed forces, changing rooms, hostels and refuge centers, medical services, schools, and sports, among other things.

The judges correctly noted, "The practical problems that arise under a certificated sex approach are clear indicators that this interpretation is not correct."

Varying responses to the Supreme Court's decision

In reaction to the U.K. Supreme Court's ruling, Scottish First Minister John Swinney said in an X post, "The Scottish Government accepts today’s Supreme Court judgement. The ruling gives clarity between two relevant pieces of legislation passed at Westminster. We will now engage on the implications of the ruling. Protecting the rights of all will underpin our actions."

The ruling was heralded in an X post from Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch, who wrote, "Saying 'trans women are women' was never true in fact and now isn’t true in law, either. A victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious. Women are women and men are men: you cannot change your biological sex."

The BBC reported that Susan Smith, a co-founder of For Women Scotland, told reporters after the decision, "Today the judges have said what we always believed to be the case, that women are protected by their biological sex," and added, "Sex is real and women can now feel safe that services and spaces designated for women are for women and we are enormously grateful to the Supreme Court for this ruling."

The Guardian reported, though, that assorted trans-rights groups found the ruling to be "disappointing," and expressed "deep concern at the widespread implications" and potential "consequences" that were "incredibly worrying for the trans community" and their supporters.