The Trans Round-Up: headlines we’re following (August 2025)

Welcome to our second edition of “The Trans Round-Up: headlines we’re following“. At Amelia’s Angels we cover a lot of the issues that are affecting our community but there’s so much else going on, we can not cover everything BUT we are watching, reading & gathering information.

So here’s other news you may have missed.

In The News

Scottish Gender Clinics struggle with demand
Virgin Active to exclude trans people from using preferred gendered toilets and changing rooms
UK Supreme Court trans ruling based on ‘significant errors’
UK’s first trans woman judge seeks a rehearing of the Supreme Court case
Kenyan court orders government to pass legislation to protect transgender men and women
Also monitoring in the news

Stories and issues we covered at Amelia’s Angels:

Trans advocacy at Amelia’s Angels

Trans Joy you missed at Amelia’s Angels:

The Joy In a Name

Scottish Gender Clinics struggle with demand

Summary: The Scottish Government published a report in 7 August 2025 highlighting that all four Scottish gender clinics are struggling to recruit and maintain staff because of the “polarisation of debates around gender services” for trans people. The publication Evaluation of the Impact of Scottish Government Funding: Gender Identity Healthcare, “presents findings of an independent evaluation into the impact of Scottish Government funding, as allocated to NHS Health Boards, to implement local work to improve access to, and delivery of, gender identity services.”

The report shares fears from staff who have been targeted by anti-trans press and groups, which has in part been responsible for crippling waiting lists due to staff recruitment and retention, among all four clinics that serve Scottish trans adults and youth.

Sandyford in Glasgow, which serves the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, has been the subject of the most negative attention. Sandyford is also the only gender clinic in Scotland for young people. It’s website currently shows that it is only seeing adults currently referred up to November 2018 and young people referred up to November 2019.

As a trans man on that waiting list I can myself attest that despite being referred at the beginning of 2025, there has been no move in almost 9 months. It will be – at current rate – 7 years before I will be seen for my FIRST appointment which means I will be in my mid-50’s, unless something drastically improves and that can be painful some days to think about. (Dillon).

**Screenshot from Sandyford Clinic highlighting waiting list times.**

The report from the Scottish Government states “Sandyford has been at the centre of public attention more than the other GICs, creating additional stress for staff currently working within the clinic… Staff members have significant concerns about ‘their names appearing in the papers’, and newspapers ‘plucking’ staff members’ names ‘out of thin air’, which unfortunately has already happened for some of the team members.”

Another issue has been impact felt since the publication of the Cass Review which called for the pause of puberty blockers being prescribed to trans youth until clinical testing could be done. This has effectively led to a ban on puberty blockers for under 18’s and the Scottish Government acknowledges the review has “significantly affected” the service.

Virgin Active to exclude trans people from using preferred gendered toilets and changing rooms

Summary: The Virgin Active gym group sent an email out to members informing them that “following a recent legal ruling that affects our business” they were making changes to it’s Club Rules.

The email confirmed this was in light of the UK Supreme Court ruling in Aril 2025 but gave it’s members false information that the ruling was “legally binding“. There is no law that means trans people are to be banned wholesale from gendered facilities.

As Pink News wrote; “While the ruling allows transgender individuals to be excluded from single-sex spaces, it doesn’t mandate such exclusions and its practical application and impact are still being interpreted,” and that “the UK’s Supreme Court judgement from April is not legally enforceable, and the EHRC’s interim guidance, which recommends banning trans people from using appropriate gendered facilities, is not legally binding.”

UK Supreme Court trans ruling based on ‘significant errors’

Summary: European Law Monitor released a detailed legal analysis of April’s UK Supreme Court ruling of FWS v Scottish Ministers which heavily criticised the ruling, charging that the SC had an “incorrect understanding” on equality law, they had made “significant errors” and had been “unduly optimistic” that their ruling would not have an immediate and negative effect on trans people, even though within days that was exactly what happened and has happened since.

The European Law Monitor wrote on its website “the Court misapplied both the correct interpretative approach and the relevant EU‐derived equality law, and as a result, has potentially put the UK in breach of its obligations…“.

It’s damning conclusion states that “…the Supreme Court’s contrary conclusion is factually, legally and procedurally flawed.“

The Supreme Court had stated that it’s ruling should not be seen “as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another” but this is exactly what has happened, with the EHRC releasing interim guidance which has been used by various groups and organisations to exclude trans people from toilets, changing rooms, sports and other public spaces. It has also seen a significant rise in anti-trans rhetoric and threats of lawsuits against private companies and organisations who do not interpret the ruling as some anti-trans groups would like them to.

The Scottish Government has also found itself being dragged back to court by FWS who claim that the government is ignoring the ruling that sex in law mans biological not gender identity. The government has repeatedly stated it is waiting for full guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) before issuing advice to public bodies.

The UK’s first female Supreme Court judge, and former Supreme Court president, Baroness Brenda Hale of Richmond, back in May 2025, criticised the way the court’s ruling is being (mis)interpreted. Speaking on a live panel at the Charleston literary festival in East Sussex, Hale said “…there’s nothing in this judgement that says you can’t have gender neutral loos, as we have here in this festival, despite the fact that there are people saying you can’t do that.” She also argued that the 2010 Equality Act does not in any way shape or form require services to provide facilities “according to sex“.

UK’s first trans woman judge seeks a rehearing of the Supreme Court case

Summary: Lawyers for Dr Victoria McCloud, the UK’s first openly trans judge, have started the process of taking the British government before the European Court of Human Rights, over the April 2025 UK Supreme Court ruling that ruled the legal definition of ‘sex’ only applies to “biological women”.

McCloud who retired in 2024, has alleged that the Supreme Court ignored the voices of trans people by declining her an opportunity to intervene despite the direct impact the ruling would and has caused.

Supported by Trans Legal Clinic and W-Legal, Dr McCloud has brought the case under Articles 8 and 14 of the ECHR, alongside Article 6, which state that her right to fair trial was denied when her’s and other trans voices were denied but anti-trans voices were heard.

Speaking to The Guardian, McCloud said “No representation or evidence had been included from us in the 8,500 group [the estimated UK population of people with GRCs who are diagnosed as transsexual]. I was refused. The court gave no reasoning….The court reversed my and 8,500 other people’s sex for the whole of equality law … We are now two sexes at once. We are told we must use dangerous spaces such as male changing rooms and loos when we have female anatomy. If we are raped we must go to male rape crisis. We are searched by male police, to ‘protect’ female police from, I assume, our female anatomy.”

Trans Legal Clinic made it clear that trans people must have a seat at the table when it comes to rulings, policies, laws, anything that affects our lives; “The unfairness of a debate in which trans voices were excluded is obvious. Justice requires our participation, and this case represents an important step in making sure that happens. We hope it will be the first of many.“

Vocal Media summed up the case as a “defining moment” for trans people: “Victoria McCloud’s … case underscores the importance of ensuring that marginalised groups are not just subjects of legal rulings but active participants in shaping the law that governs their lives.”

The case is being financed by crowdfunding and you can do so here: www.translegalclinic.com/mccloud. The money raised “will help cover legal costs, court fees, and the work needed to bring this historic case before the European Court of Human Rights.”

Kenyan court orders government to pass legislation to protect transgender men and women

Summary: The High Court in Kenya has ordered the government to “to enact a Transgender Protection Rights Act“.

The landmark case was brought by a trans woman known as SC. SC has been living her life as her preferred gender since childhood and holds documents affirming that from other countries she has resided in.

Due to Kenya’s draconian trans laws, SC was arrested in June 2019 accused of “impersonation” while visiting Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. She was subsequently taken to a women’s prison where she was subjected to a strip search and other degrading actions.

She was court ordered to “gender determination” which saw her subjected to a genital examination, hormone testing, blood sampling and radiological testing. These were subsequently leaked to the press.

Suing the Kenya Prisons Service and the Eldoret hospital with the support of the Transgender Education and Advocacy group, SC argued her treatment was unconstitutional and “that her inherent dignity had been violated, and that her treatment demonstrated a legislative gap around transgender people while they are being held in custody in Kenya.”

On August 12, 2025, the High Court in Eldoret “awarded SC 1,000,000 Kenyan Shillings (around AU$8,000) in damages and found that SC’s rights to dignity, privacy and freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment had been violated.”

The Judge in the case went a step further and “ordered the amendment of the Intersex Persons Bill, 2024, to plug the glaring gaps in the law“.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission welcomed the decision stating:

“We welcome the court’s decision, which further held that state-imposed limitations on SC’s core rights, including freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, equality and non-discrimination, dignity, freedom and security of the person, and privacy were unconstitutional.

The court’s decision to recognize SC as a transgender person further upholds the right of transgender persons to determine their self-identified gender. The state is directed to grant legal recognition of that gender identity within Kenya’s legal framework. This is a decisive step that moves recognition from debate to duty.”

A spokesperson for queer rights charity Jinsiangu, said that the ruling “could address decades of legal invisibility and discrimination faced by transgender persons, by establishing clear legal recognition of gender identity, protections against discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare and education, and access to public services, without bias or harassment“.

Also monitoring in the news

The appointment of Mary-Ann Stephenson to the chair the EHRC has raised alarm bells among trans people and trans advocacy and other human rights groups. Her appointment was opposed by the Women and Equalities committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Several groups including Trans Advocacy and Complaint Collective UK (TACC) and Amelia’s Angels, have seen this as a a concern that the EHRC is now fully captured against trans right. See our own statement here.

A recent media furore involving M&S and the companies bra-fitting services after a trans woman employee was on the receiving end of anti-trans complaints has delivered a stark warning of the need to exercise caution. The original complaint was made in March 2025, but suddenly gained traction on August 2025 with several anti-trans leading newspapers and media groups, alleging that the trans woman had somehow stepped into a space she should not have been and that M&S had said that trans women customers were excluded from their bra-fitting services. All of which became apparent were not true. A lot of reporting came from single sources with media friendly to one another creating an echo chamber and other media not fact-checking for themselves.

We are Queer AF, Trans Advocacy & Complaints Collective (TACC) and others delved into the actual original complaint and subsequent stories, finding that when held up to scrutiny, everything around it fell apart.

The EHRC has taken an unusual step by intervening against NHS Fife in the Nurse Peggie case which is currently ongoing in Scotland. It comes as Peggie’s legal team alleged they had written to NHS Fife requesting for “any relevant impact assessments undertaken by the health board in August 2024“. The board said it had not done so. Outgoing chair for the EHRC Baroness Kishwer Falkner, EHRC chair, said: “Undertaking an equality impact assessment of relevant policies or practices, and publishing the results, are requirements of the PSED Specific Duties in Scotland. We believe NHS Fife failed to meet these requirements and told them to carry one out immediately.

The ECHR has also “defended the watchdog’s process of updating its code of practice for services, public functions and associations.” In a letter to The Times newspaper, the chief executive John Kirkpatrick wrote that the paper had been “premature” in allging the EHRC had “already determined” what would be in the forthcoming guidnace stating that the article “… quotes extensively from the draft guidance issued for consultation in May…We have not decided what, if any, changes to make to the draft text“. Kirkpatrick also hit out at trans advocacy groups who has expressed concerns at the way the ECHR is relying on AI to go through the 50,000 responses it recieved in it’s recent consultation, with worries expressed that voices are already being silenced; “Our use of supervised AI technology alongside expert legal analysis is a responsible and widely-used approach that ensures we can give proper consideration to all responses whilst delivering the guidance that public bodies urgently need.”

Coming Soon:
Amelia’s Angels is working on a new contact page which will give options not only to engage with our life-coaching services but also to let us know about things you see in the news you think we should cover – whether that be a full article or as part of the round-up. We will also be adding into that contact page the ability to ask us to look at something that is affecting you and help you with letters or advocacy. To see a recent win we had for a member of the community, please read here.
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