With media outlets in the U.K. devoting most of their attention to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, American observers of all things British may have missed a significant legal case currently before the English courts. A group called Mermaids is appealing a 2021 ruling by the U.K. Charities Commission that granted charitable status to an organization named The LGB Alliance.

The case is fascinating for a number of reasons. First, there are the rival parties. Mermaids is an organization that advocates for trans rights, particularly those of young people. The LGB Alliance advocates for the rights of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. The absence of the T in the group’s name is significant: The LGB Alliance rejects the idea that biological men can be women and vice versa, and strongly opposes trans treatment for minors. Therein lies the point of conflict. For the U.K. government to grant charitable status to such a group is to recognize that such a stance serves the common good. The trans activists reject this; to them, the government's decision reeks of TERFs, the feminists critical of transgenderism who now occupy a place in the trans pantheon of evil only slightly above that of straight white males.