The Scottish Government needed to pay more attention to women’s concerns over the gender self-ID Bill’s impact on single-sex spaces, a former SNP Minister has said.
Speaking on BBC Disclosure in the wake of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation as First Minister, former Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport Jeane Freeman said that she “wouldn’t have supported” the Bill “as it currently sits”.
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, now blocked by Westminster, would have allowed 16-year-olds to change their legal sex by self-declaration without a medical diagnosis.
‘Demonised’
Freeman remarked: “I would have been in Parliament making an argument for some of the concerns that were raised – that I consider to be legitimate – to be addressed. We needed to pay more attention to the concerns being raised particularly by women about their space.”
Speaking about the case of convicted rapist Adam Graham who was initially placed in a segregated unit in a women’s prison, she said: “It appeared to symbolise the risk that a man who had sexually abused a woman, who had raped a woman, could decide for their own reasons to now say that they were a woman too.”
SNP MP Joanna Cherry KC, also speaking on the programme, criticised the Bill for giving “the right to anyone to self-identify as the opposite sex”.
She stated: “We have a policy, the detail of which was not properly thought through, which was never debated at our conference. Where dissenters were demonised and where we didn’t take the public with us.”
It appeared to symbolise the risk that a man who had sexually abused a woman, who had raped a woman, could decide for their own reasons to now say that they were a woman too.
‘Adverse impact’
A poll conducted by Savanta ComRes for The Scotsman found that more than half (53 per cent) of 1,004 Scottish adults believe that the Scottish Government should not proceed with a legal challenge over the UK Government’s decision to block the gender self-ID Bill.
Less than a third (32 per cent) were in favour, with 15 per cent undecided.
Exercising powers under the Scotland Act 1998, Scotland Secretary Alister Jack made an order last month prohibiting Holyrood from submitting the Bill for Royal Assent.
Jack explained: “After thorough and careful consideration of all the relevant advice and the policy implications, I am concerned that this legislation would have an adverse impact on the operation of Great Britain-wide equalities legislation.”
Unpopular
Last week, commentators suggested that Nicola Sturgeon had resigned over the backlash following her failure to recognise that men cannot be women.
Political commentator Iain Macwhirter, former SNP MSP Joan McAlpine and others argued that championing the unpopular ‘self-ID’ law lost her support in her party and in the country.
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