Gender Reform Appeal to Be Scrapped in Scotland

UK government intervened to block SNP bill to allow over-16s to obtain gender recognition certificate after just three months of living as the opposite sex.

Scottish Deputy First Minister Shona Robison alongside First Minister Humza Yousaf dated Dec. 19, 2023. Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

The Scottish Government has confirmed it will not pursue further legal challenges against the UK government after it blocked the gender recognition reform that would have allowed children aged 16 to legally identify as the opposite sex.

Deputy First Minister Shona Robison told BBC Scotland the decision to drop further appeals was a “difficult” one, and said the Scottish Government will continue to defend decisions made by the devolved government in Holyrood.

Equalities legislation is not a devolved matter and the UK government was able to use a section 35 order to block the bill because it could have an adverse effect on protected groups across the UK, including women and children.

Women’s groups in Scotland welcomed the move and urged the SNP to drop all thoughts of bringing the controversial legislation back in the future.

The proposed bill would have simplified the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate so that those who identify as transgender could be recognised as the opposite sex after just three months and without having surgery or hormone therapy.

Ms. Robison said Westminster’s intervention to overturn the legislation was “outrageous” and that future attempts by UK Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack to block bills would “not be tolerated.”

“If we see this again, on a piece of legislation the secretary of state for Parliament happens not to like, we will continue to robustly defend the wishes of this Parliament.”

Alluding to the next general election, she added, “We want to make sure that if there is a change of government at UK level that we get a different understanding and a different relationship that is based on respect.”

Impact of Legislation

Alba Party MSP Ash Regan, who left the SNP and quit her government post over her stance on gender recognition, urged the ruling party to drop the bill for good, telling the Scottish Parliament that Scots women had been dismissed as “transphobes and bigots” for opposing the legislation.

Speaking to BBC Scotland, Ms. Regan said: “There was certainly a refusal [by the Scottish Government] to engage with issues of substance, particularly issues like the impact this legislation would have on the safety, dignity, and privacy of women and girls, and actually that’s an international obligation that the Scottish Government needs to abide by, and also on the cross-border issues.

“So many people, myself included, warned the Scottish Government repeatedly before this legislation went through the Scottish Parliament that we thought it impacted on the implementation of the Equalities Act, which of course is reserved to the UK.”

Several high profile cases in Scotland and across the UK have highlighted the dangers of self-identification, with male rapists able to claim they are the opposite sex and gain access to women’s prisons.

Isla Bryson, a man convicted of two rapes north of the border while known as Adam Graham, was able to legally change his gender while awaiting trial and was initially remanded to a women’s jail before being transferred to a male facility.

For Women Scotland echoed the views of Ms. Regan, saying on X, formerly known as Twitter, there has been, “No apology for women who were demonised and rubbished by [the SNP] government, but much concern for the trans community suffering from the ’toxicity' of the debate.”

Mhairi Crawford, chief executive of the charity LGBT Youth Scotland, said she hoped the bill would be brought back in the future.

“It is important to remember that the GRR bill itself was not challenged and it is not dead. It is merely stalled until the political situation changes, which in time, it will,” she said.

“We will continue to work with the Scottish Government, and share and amplify the invaluable lived experience, including frustrations, of the young people we support.”