Scotland’s new First Minister backs ‘fantasy’ of gender identity

Scotland’s new First Minister has claimed that men can be defined as women.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, John Swinney stated: “I believe a woman is an adult female born as a woman, and I also accept that transgender women are defined as women.”

The Scottish Government’s gender self-ID Bill, which the SNP intends to resurrect if the UK Government lifts its veto, would allow 16-year-olds to change their legal sex by self-declaration without a medical diagnosis, and reduce the waiting time for adults from two years to just three months.

‘Lewis Carroll’

Lucy Hunter Blackburn, of policy analysis group MurrayBlackburnMackenzie, said: “I see the Scottish Government is still behaving as if they think they can handle questions round the relevance of sex in language, policy and law as if this was just a word game scripted by Lewis Carroll. That stage is well past.”

Posting on X, the Scottish Feminist Network added: “The new First Minister believes there are 2 routes to womanhood (just like the last 2 FMs): biological and fantasy.

“We know what happened to the last 2 FMs, so brace yourself, John”.

Backlash

Last year, Scotland’s Outer House of the Court of Session upheld the UK Government’s decision to veto the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

The legislation was initially approved by Holyrood, before it was blocked by Westminster when Scotland Secretary Alister Jack enacted Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, effectively vetoing it.

Former First Minister Humza Yousaf failed to overturn the block, after Nicola Sturgeon promised to fight Westminster over it before she resigned.

Political commentators suggested that the backlash to the proposals led to Sturgeon’s decision to resign. Journalist Iain Macwhirter, former SNP MSP Joan McAlpine and others argued that championing the unpopular Bill lost her support in her party and in the country.