The actress has said she was ‘completely horrified’ and ‘disgusted’ by the the Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of a woman
Actress Nicola Coughlan, who starred in Netflix’s Bridgerton, has helped to raise more than £100,000 for a trans rights charity just days after a landmark gender court ruling.
The Supreme Court in the UK ruled on Wednesday (April 16) that the terms ‘women’ and ‘sex’ in the 2010 Equality Act ‘refer to a biological woman and biological sex’.
The Equality Act is a law which protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.
The decision means transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces if ‘proportionate’ and that trans women cannot use single-sex female toilets, changing rooms or compete in women’s sports, according to the head of Britain’s equalities watchdog.
The ruling comes after a legal dispute between the Scottish government and the campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) dating back to 2018, backed by Harry Potter author JK Rowling.
The Irish star said she was ‘completely horrified’ and ‘disgusted’ by the ruling and said she would match donations up to £10,000 to the transgender charity Not A Phase. The fundraiser has since raised £103,018, with a revised target of £110,000.
On Friday, the Derry Girls and Barbie actress, 38, who has long supported the LGBT+ community, shared the donation page on her Instagram story, saying: “Nearly 100k thanks to you kind and brilliant people so delighted for Not A Phase.”
The fundraiser description reads: “Allies of the Trans and Non Binary Community time to come together.”
The Derry Girls actress also criticised JK Rowling over her views on the Supreme Court’s transgender ruling, the Mirror reported. Rowling, 59, who is a vocal gender-critical campaigner, posted on X after the ruling showing her smoking a cigar and holding up a drink, championing “the rights of women and girls across the UK.”
Coughlan shared a post on Instagram commenting: “Keep your new Harry Potter lads. Wouldn’t touch it with a 10ft pole.”
In a later video to her Instagram audience, Coughlan said: “To see an already marginalized community be further attacked – and attacked in law – is really stomach-turning and disgusting,” while also noting, “And to see people celebrate it is more stomach-turning and disgusting.”
In response to the ruling, thousands of trans rights protesters gathered in central London on Saturday including groups such as Trans Kids Deserve Better, Pride in Labour, the Front for the Liberation of Intersex Non-binary and Transgender people (Flint) and TransActual.
It follows a number of trans rights marches that took place across the UK on Friday (April 18), including in Manchester city centre. Hundreds took to St Peter’s Square in an impromptu march, with protesters dubbing the ruling a ‘frightening’ moment for trans people and the wider LGBTQ+ community.