Court greenlights transphobic challenge at Hampstead ponds

The Court of Appeal have given the transphobic group Sex Matters permission to challenge trans inclusion at Hampstead Heath ponds. But Good Law Project are preparing to intervene.

Last year, Sex Matters tried to ban trans women from the women’s pond, even though they’ve been swimming there for years. They asked the High Court for permission for a judicial review of a trans inclusive policy supported by the overwhelming majority of people who use the pond.

The court refused their application and found that the claim was premature, because the City of London was in the middle of a consultation process about who could use the ponds. They also found that Sex Matters were too late to bring a challenge, because the decisions to let trans people swim in the pond were taken years ago.

More than 32,000 people who responded to the consultation said they wanted the ponds to remain inclusive. But the Court of Appeal has ruled that Sex Matters’s challenge can go ahead.

We’ve been preparing this case for months, working on our legal arguments and gathering witness statements from people who want the ponds to remain trans inclusive, and have been swimming alongside trans people – often for decades. We need to make sure that the voices of the majority are heard.