A defiant Nicola Sturgeon has refused to apologise to women for her self-ID gender policy after the Supreme Court ruled trans women are not women, saying “trans lives could become unliveable”. The Telegraph has more.
The former First Minister said she did not need to say sorry to women for legislation tabled by her government that would have allowed biological men to change legal gender by simply signing a declaration.
In her first substantive comments on the April 16th ruling, Ms Sturgeon said feminists who took the Scottish Government to court did not represent “every woman in the country”.
She claimed women with concerns about self-ID were outnumbered two-to-one by those who “have a different view” about the policy.
Although she said she accepted the court’s ruling, she warned the manner in which it will be “translated into practice” could make “the lives of trans people almost unliveable”.
She said she would be “very concerned” if interim advice issued by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that only biological women can use female-only safe spaces “became the final guidance”.
But Joanna Cherry KC, a former SNP MP who opposed self-ID, accused Ms Sturgeon of branding women who opposed self-ID as “bigots” and said her behaviour had been “a disgrace”.
Ms Sturgeon’s intervention came during her first appearance at the Scottish Parliament since the ruling. The Glasgow Southside MSP has been accused of going into hiding and “moral cowardice” for failing to respond to the judgment.
Ms Sturgeon’s only previous comments on the landmark ruling have been that that “my views are well known”, after she was tracked down at an SNP event in Glasgow.
Her government’s controversial Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill introducing gender self-ID was passed at Holyrood but vetoed by the UK Government over concerns it undermined women’s safe spaces.
But it has emerged that swathes of Scotland’s public sector adopted self-ID all the same, allowing trans people access to female toilets and changing rooms.
Experts have warned these practices will have to be scrapped following the Supreme Court’s ruling that the definition of a woman is based on biological sex, and does not include trans women.
Ms Sturgeon has previously claimed some opponents of the GRR Bill were transphobic. In January 2023, the month before she stepped down as First Minister, she said: “You’ll also find that they’re deeply misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well.”
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