内容摘要：THE FACTS: The measles vaccine is highly protective and lasts a lifetime for most people. Two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective against the virus,

THE FACTS: The measles vaccine is highly protective and lasts a lifetime for most people. Two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective against the virus,

Marion Calder and Susan Smith from For Women Scotland, celebrate outside the Supreme Court to challenge gender recognition laws, in London, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. For Women Scotland is challenging the Scottish Government over whether trans women can be regarded as female for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)Marion Calder and Susan Smith from For Women Scotland, celebrate outside the Supreme Court to challenge gender recognition laws, in London, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. For Women Scotland is challenging the Scottish Government over whether trans women can be regarded as female for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The Supreme Court judges stressed that their ruling should not be seen as an attack on transgender people. They said it “does not remove or diminish the important protections … for trans people” under the Equality Act, which bans discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment.It’s unclear what the ruling will mean in practice.The judgment highlights a range of spaces and services that could be intended just for women, including “rape or domestic violence counselling, domestic violence refuges, rape crisis centers, female-only hospital wards and changing rooms.” The law already allowed for trans women to be excluded from single-sex spaces under certain circumstances, but Wednesday’s ruling appears to make such a ban easier.

The ruling could also see transgender female athletes excluded from participating in women’s and girls sports, and there could be ramifications in workplaces.But much depends on how the ruling is interpreted and implemented.

Hannah Ford, an employment partner at law firm Stevens & Bolton, told the BBC that because of the ruling, ensuring workplaces are welcoming places for trans people will be “an uphill battle.”

She said one positive aspect was that “at least we have simplicity and clarity. So it is in one sense a triumph of sense over legal incoherency and legal fiction.”Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s

with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.VATICAN CITY (AP) — While

s accomplished a lot in his 12-year papacy, he left much unfinished business and many challenges for his successor — from the Vatican’s disastrous finances to the wars raging on multiple continents and discontent among traditionalists about his crackdown on thePope Francis leaves at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, May 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)