The appeal is due to be heard on 26 and 27 November.

In For Women Scotland’s judicial review of 2023, the Inner House of the Court of Session found that a person possessing a gender recognition certificate (GRC) should be afforded the right to access services intended for those of the opposite sex.

The court decision stated that a person with a GRC in their acquired gender has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Separately, they also possess the protected characteristic of sex according to the terms of their GRC and have a presumptive right to access the single-sex services of their acquired gender.

Lesbians are “particularly impacted by this decision”, which in practice means that “men who hold a GRC are entitled to access groups and spaces intended to be for the exclusive use of lesbians”. Women holding a GRC would, conversely, legally be excluded from lesbian spaces and services, the organisation said.

Jenny Willmott, director of Scottish Lesbians, said: “Lesbians are exclusively same-sex attracted women. Like other minority groups, we deserve our own spaces in which we can socialise, discuss issues which impact us as lesbians, and support each other. Our needs go beyond safety and privacy; our whole freedom of association depends on being able to keep our spaces single-sex. The current legal situation means that our sexual orientation has effectively ceased to be protected under the Equality Act 2010.

“We also know that young lesbians are over-represented in gender clinics. We believe that lesbian-only spaces and services are needed now more than ever, so that these young women have a supportive community they can connect with.”