17 January 2023, 19:43
By Gina Davidson
It didn't need to be like this, writes LBC's Scotland political editor Gina Davidson.
The almighty constitutional row which has blown up over the Scottish Government's bill to change how trans people can gain a Gender Recognition Certificate and legally change their sex was entirely avoidable.
But then fighting on constitutional territory is familiar, possibly almost comfortable, for both the Scottish and UK governments.
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill is not about independence or the union. It's about the lives of trans people who are seeking a simpler way in which to get their official documents, including their birth certificate, aligned with the gender they believe they are. That is, at least the Scottish Government's belief - and indeed is the argument of many trans people and campaigners.
But there have been concerns raised by many women's organisations in Scotland that the process the Scottish Government has introduced in its reforms puts single sex spaces at risk. There have also been worries about the introduction of self-identification into law, giving the ability of any person, any man, to declare themselves the opposite sex without any diagnosis of gender dysphoria as the current law demands. Including men who are on charges of rape or other sexual assault.
Read more: Sunak set for showdown with Sturgeon as he moves to block Scottish Govt's controversial gender change law
Those concerns, dismissed at one point by Nicola Sturgeon as being "not valid", are now cited by the UK government as one of its reasons to block the bill. They believe that having two different processes in the UK to change legal sex could lead to "fraudulent" applications.
The UK government also says there are impacts on the operation of the Equality Act around equal pay claims, single sex schools and associations, even sport - and not just in Scotland, but in the whole of the UK, as there would be nothing to prevent someone with a Scottish GRC moving south of the border. And the Equality Act is a UK-wide piece of legislation which is purely reserved to Westminster. Upon its turf, the Scottish Parliament is not allowed to tread.
So we now have a row about the UK government either undermining devolution and Scottish democracy, or using devolution legislation correctly to prevent over-reach by the Scottish Government - depending on your viewpoint.
What is for sure is that both governments should have done the hard work and talked to each other ahead of the Bill passing through Holyrood. Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, says his officials did, and the Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch also raised concerns - all "ignored", he says, by Shona Robison, the Scottish minister who piloted the bill. For her part, she says the UK government only got in touch at the last moment, and she has accused it of not involving itself in the consultation process.
Of course other people did point out the potential clash with the Equality Act, but they tended to be the same people whose views had earlier been dismissed as "not valid".
You can't help but think that with a little more hubris, a little more listening, a little less antagonism on all sides, that this bourach could have been avoided. And trans people would not now be the political football in a constitutional game which seems to have no end – except in the Supreme Court.
'This almighty row over Scotland's gender recognition reforms was entirely avoidable'
17 January 2023, 19:43
By Gina Davidson
It didn't need to be like this, writes LBC's Scotland political editor Gina Davidson.
The almighty constitutional row which has blown up over the Scottish Government's bill to change how trans people can gain a Gender Recognition Certificate and legally change their sex was entirely avoidable.
But then fighting on constitutional territory is familiar, possibly almost comfortable, for both the Scottish and UK governments.
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill is not about independence or the union. It's about the lives of trans people who are seeking a simpler way in which to get their official documents, including their birth certificate, aligned with the gender they believe they are. That is, at least the Scottish Government's belief - and indeed is the argument of many trans people and........
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