LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Thousands of people on Saturday rallied in London and Edinburgh in support of trans rights, after a landmark UK court ruling on the definition of a “woman”.

Britain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the legal definition of a “woman” is based on a person’s sex at birth, with potentially far-reaching consequences for how single-sex spaces and services are run.

Outside the UK parliament in London, activists, protesters, trade unions and community groups waved flags and held up banners with slogans such as “trans women are women!” and “trans rights are human rights”.

“My main fear — the extremists will feel empowered by this decision,” said Eevee Zayas, a 32-year-old researcher from Spain, describing themself as non-binary transgender.

“Hate crimes against (the) trans community (will) go up,” Zayas added.

The court ruling said single-sex spaces and services including changing rooms, toilets and women-only hospital wards “will function properly only if sex is interpreted as biological sex”.

Joe Brown, a trans woman in the process of transitioning, said: “Everything in the transition is going to be harder.

“Coming here in big numbers is very important to stand against the Supreme Court decision.”

Brown said other fears included not being able to access healthcare and children being scared to come out as trans.

– ‘Disgusted’ –

London’s Metropolitan Police said it was investigating after seven statues “in the vicinity of the protest” were vandalised.

At least two statues in Parliament Square were daubed with graffiti during the rally including one of suffragette Millicent Fawcett, who was part of the campaign to secure the vote for women in the early part of the 20th century.

Last week’s court ruling followed a legal battle between the Scottish government and a campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) involving clashing interpretations of the Equality Act.

While the Scottish government argued that the law gave trans women with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) the same protections as a biological female, the campaign group disagreed.

In the Scottish capital Edinburgh, thousands more protesters marched.

Lauren Yeoman, 38, said she was “disgusted” by a ruling she felt effectively removed the human rights of trans people.

“We’re pointing fingers at people who aren’t harming anybody, such as trans people, while ignoring the real problems,” she said.

Speakers addressed the crowd using megaphones, and led the demonstrators in chants that included: “When trans rights are under attack, what do we do? Fight back.”