Two-thirds of Scots oppose Scot Govt’s gender self-ID Bill

Two-thirds of Scottish voters oppose the Scottish Government’s radical gender self-ID plans, a new poll has revealed.

The poll, conducted by YouGov on behalf of The Times, asked 1,090 over-16s whether they supported or opposed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill’s proposals to make it much easier to change legal sex.

Under the current law only adults can change legal sex, and the greatest public opposition to the proposed Bill was to extending ‘sex swaps’ to 16-year-olds, with two-thirds (66 per cent) opposed and barely one in five (21 per cent) in favour. Of those against the change, 63 per cent were SNP voters.

‘Sleepwalking’

Six in ten respondents said that the Bill should not remove the requirement for medical evidence, while almost the same number (59 per cent) opposed reducing the two-year waiting period for adults to three months.

The Scottish Parliament is due to give its final vote on the fast-tracked Bill next week, after Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison rejected calls to delay the process.

Scottish Conservative MSP Rachael Hamilton warned Robison that Holyrood “could be sleepwalking into passing a Bill that will put women and girls at risk”.

In response, the Social Justice Secretary merely stated that there have been two public consultations on the matter. Yet, of the 10,800 legitimate submissions to the Scottish Parliament’s equalities committee earlier this year, 59 per cent opposed the Bill.

Young people

Last month, the Equality and Human Rights Commission urged the Scottish Government to exclude 16 and 17-year-olds from the legislation, saying that SNP MSP Christine Grahame’s amendment to extend the waiting period for under 18s from three months to six did not sufficiently protect young people.

But the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee approved the Grahame amendment, while rejecting another which would have excluded under 18s from the legislation.

The Commission stated: “We recognise that 16 is the age of legal capacity in Scotland, but also that higher age limits apply for several matters that are of less significance than changing legal sex, such as purchasing alcohol and tobacco, getting a tattoo or driving a car.”