A large group of film industry stars, executives, and workers have banded together in a letter to protest Britain’s Supreme Court after it ruled that transgender women cannot be considered biological women for purposes of equality.
Signers include The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey, Babygirl star Harris Dickinson, Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, Harry Potter’s Paapa Essiedu, and How to Have Sex filmmaker Molly Manning Walker, among hundreds of others.
The letter, signed by more than 400 members of the industry, expresses support for men who identify as women in the entertainment industry and demands that the British film industry pledge to protect transgenders working in entertainment.
The letter announces that these industry insiders “stand in solidarity with the trans, non-binary and intersex communities who have been impacted by the Supreme Court ruling on April 17. We wish to add our voices to the 2000+ signatories of the Open Letter from UK Writers to the Trans Community published last week and call upon members of our industry and cultural bodies to join us.”
The letter goes on to note that the UK Supreme Court ruled that “the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man,” but adds that the entertainment workers “believe the ruling undermines the lived reality and threatens the safety of trans, non-binary and intersex people living in the UK.”
The signatories also insisted that “Film and television are powerful tools for empathy and education, and we believe passionately in the ability of the screen to change hearts and minds. This is our opportunity to be on the right side of history.”
The country’s highest court issued its ruling on April 16 in response to rules in Scotland that forced the boards of corporations to have a 50/50 split in the genders of board members. The court’s rule maintains that a transgender woman does not count as a biological woman in such cases.
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