Transgender Women Protest Topless at the Scottish Parliament

“If the Supreme Court can see these women legally as men, then they’ll have zero issue with them going tops off,” lamented one protester.

On May 17 a group of transgender women gathered at at the Scottish Parliament to protest its decision that as of Monday May 12, 2025, use of “all facilities designated as male or female” will be based on biological sex, to put Scottish law in line with the UK Supreme Court judgement excluding trans people from the Equality Act of 2010”.

The move was branded “rushed” and “unworkable” by Scottish Trans people who said it would “exclude trans people from participating in Scottish democracy, whether as staff or as visitors to the parliament." They felt betrayed by their government and believed, rightfully so, that the Scottish Government should appeal that decision instead of complying in advance and making the situation untenable.

Transgender women were not allowed to defend their rights and forced to sit silently as For Women Scotland, a gender critical Trans exclusionay Radical Feminists (TERF) group, made the case for their exclusion.

One protester at the topless demonstration, Sugar, said the court ruling was “not just a setback of humanitarian rights, it’s an act of erasure”, adding: “It sends a truly saddening message that trans people’s fears, dignity and lives do not matter in the eyes of the Supreme Court. Trans voices were ignored in that decision.

For indepth reporting please read Pink News Topless trans protest outside Holyrood a ‘public act of grief, resistance and solidarity’