Minister urges MSPs to back ‘important’ gender reforms
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Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison has urged MSPs to back controversial gender reforms as the legislation is expected to pass at Holyrood.
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill will remove the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC).
It would also lower the minimum age for applicants to 16 and drop the time required for an applicant to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months – six for those aged 16 and 17 – though with a three-month reflection period.
The Bill has been one of the most controversial since devolution, with opponents saying it could harm the rights of women and girls, while the Scottish Government has insisted little will change.
In the final minutes of the debate, as Ms Robison was making her closing remarks, a number of protesters were ejected from the Holyrood chamber for disrupting proceedings.
Trans rights are not in competition with women’s rights
Despite the controversy, the Bill is expected to pass due to its support among SNP, Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat MSPs.
Speaking in the final debate on the Bill on Thursday, Ms Robison said: “Every party in this chamber except one made a clear commitment to the reforms set out in this Bill at the last Scottish election, and at the one before that it was all parties.
“Members from all parties in this chamber voted to support the general principles of the Bill at stage one.
“At this final stage, I urge all members to vote in favour of these important reforms and for the Bill, I move the motion in my name.
“Trans rights are not in competition with women’s rights, and as so often before, we can improve things for everyone when those discriminated against act as allies, not opponents.”
But Scottish Conservative MSP Rachael Hamilton said the Bill “has shown this Parliament at its worst”.
She added: “In the rush to make the process a little easier for trans people, the Government is making it easier for criminal men to attack women. That’s the problem here.”
Ms Hamilton said the Bill – which she claimed would be a “legacy issue for the First Minister” – would “let criminal men exploit the system” and put women at risk in single-sex spaces.
The Equality Act features exemptions for single-sex spaces where trans people can be excluded in certain circumstances – exemptions Ms Robison has said will not change.
Ms Hamilton went on to claim that “society as a whole” is at risk from the Bill, adding: “While most of us across Scotland are good, decent, reasonable people, rapists are not, sex offenders are not, it is ignorant in the extreme to believe that they will not take advantage of loopholes that are ripe for exploitation.”
Labour’s Pam Duncan-Glancy said the legislation provides MSPs with “one of those rare moments… where we all have a real opportunity to improve lives and directly tackle inequality”.
She said the Bill will help “society to accept them (trans people) and to support them to be their best selves, without barriers or additional costs or medicalisation”.
She insisted: “I believe strongly the reform we will vote for today has been a long time coming, and that is why changing the current onerous, lengthy and invasive process of legal gender recognition has always been so important to me.”
The passage of the Bill this week comes against the background of repeated protests outside Holyrood from supporters and detractors of the Bill.
The legislation has also raised the spectre of another rebellion from the SNP benches – after seven MSPs from the ruling party voted against the Bill at stage one while two more abstained.
Former minister Ash Regan was forced to resign as a result of her vote against the Bill and has since become a staunch opponent of the legislation.
She said on Wednesday she would vote against the Bill, while fellow SNP MSP Michelle Thomson said during the debate on the legislation on Thursday she would oppose it, hitting out at the lack of a free vote granted by party whips.
Following the final vote on the Bill on Thursday, MSPs will have spent 24 hours this week debating it after two marathon sessions considering amendments on Tuesday and Wednesday – with the latter finishing at 1.15am on Thursday.
The Tories have been accused of an attempt to filibuster the legislation, proposing numerous points of order and forcing almost all amendments to votes that were sometimes not required.
