In December, Scotland passed the Gender Recognition (Scotland) Bill, which introduces a self-declaration system to obtain a gender recognition certificate. It was part of the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) manifesto in 2016. It would allow anyone aged 16 and over to change their birth certificate. This reform would remove the requirement for a medical diagnosis for gender dysphoria.
Last month, the UK government used the mechanism to block legislation in the Scottish devolved assembly for the first time. Our “conservative in name only” government has taken a rare conservative action by blocking this ill-conceived and dangerous law. The bill would allow Scotland to be the first part of the UK to introduce a self-identification system for people who want to change gender.
Westminster’s decision to use the “nuclear option” to block the bill for royal assent represents a significant escalation of tensions over the issue and will enrage campaigners and nationalists. Scotland’s first minister, Nichola Sturgeon, said her government was likely to launch a legal challenge in response.
All of which brings us to the point this week that rapists who carried out their sexual assaults as men identified as women and were therefore sent to women-only prisons in Scotland. Isla Bryson, who was twice convicted of rape before she identified as a woman, was initially held in a women’s prison pending sentencing. Then another inmate who identified as a woman, Tiffany Scott, was to be transferred to the same women’s prison. Following a public and media outcry, the Scottish Prison Service has suspended its new policy of sending transgender prisoners to women’s prisons pending an investigation.
So how did we end up at this point? The Scottish National Party is not just about independence for Scotland from the rest of the UK, it’s about implementing as many crazy woke policies as possible. This issue with transgender prisoners is a perfect example of a law that has not been thought through. Men who call themselves women will certainly have a detrimental effect on women’s rights and women-only spaces.
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It was amusing to watch Nichold Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, struggling with the question “what is a woman”. Maybe he needs to sit down with Matt Walsh to learn the basics. She had an interview about a car accident earlier in the week when she couldn’t decide if a trans woman was a woman or not. She said that trans women are women, but acknowledged that they are not treated like women when it comes to being put in prison.
In the end, Scotland will have a big problem. If their gender recognition bill becomes law, then anyone can identify as the gender they want. This will allow rapists who committed their heinous acts as men to announce that they are women, and legally be able to serve their sentences in women-only prisons. Does this seem fair or right or does it set back everything that women fought for to achieve equal rights.