Gender-critical feminist campaigners in Scotland have attacked the SNP’s plans to make it easier for people to legally change gender.
As part of the party’s new power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens, the SNP have agreed to introduce a bill within the next year to reform and simplify the Gender Recognition Act, which governs how trans people can legally change gender.
Currently, the Act requires people to prove to a Gender Recognition Panel they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, they have lived in their new gender for at least two years already and then make legally-binding declaration they intend to live as this gender for the rest of their life.
The Scottish government has already held several consultations in recent years on amending the law to allow people to simply self-identify their new gender with a form which would automatically be recognised by the panel.
Their agreement with the Greens, who are supporting an SNP minority government in a formal confidence and supply deal, commits them to reforming the Act in the next 12 months.
The text of the agreement stats: “We will reform the Gender Recognition Act in a Bill introduced in the first year of this parliamentary session.
“This will ensure the process by which a trans person can obtain legal recognition is simplified, reducing the trauma associated with that process.”
But For Women Scotland, a lobbying group which formed in opposition to self-identification in 2018, has accused Nicola Sturgeon’s government of ignoring the views of women and trying to push through changes out of step with the public’s views.
