Student Sophie will keep fighting for trans rights despite ruling by Supreme Court

"I'VE had a lot of my friends come to me and say: 'Are we going to be OK?' And it’s the first time where I can’t look them in the eye and say we're going to be alright.

- By EMILY DALTON Local democracy reporter

Sophie Gibbs, a 19-year-old mechanical engineering student, is speaking about the UK Supreme Court's ruling last month that “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 was based on biology - whether a midwife had called you a boy or a girl at birth.

“I was disappointed, but it was not unexpected,” said Sophie, a transgender woman. She said the social climate towards trans rights is quite accepting and supportive, but the political atmosphere can be hostile. Yet data and analysis from YouGov suggests scepticism on trans rights has “grown across the board in the last two years”.

Speaking in The Fallen Angel, a cabaret bar in Guildford, Sophie explained it is difficult day to day, both being an activist and a trans person.

“You don’t know if you're going to be safe,” she said. “Am I going to become a target? Is someone going to attack me because I’m using a bathroom, which I’m legally allowed to do?”

Sophie spoke with weighted words, as if balancing each thought in her mind before she let it pass her lips.

As an activist, Sophie said she often goes to protests up and down the country, with thousands of people there. “You can very easily get lost,’ she said.

“You sit there and wait to see who's going to turn up after the protest, and not everyone does.

“I've had friends that have ended up with the police in cells, or in hospital wards. It’s just so terrifying, even in everyday life. You don’t know which of your friends is going to be assaulted next.”