Why Nicola Sturgeon's 'extraordinary' admission over gender Bill doesn't excuse the problems she caused
Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon admits she should have paused gender Bill, as The Scotsman advised before Scottish Parliament vote
In December 2022, ahead of the final vote on the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, The Scotsman argued that the “wisest course is to pause the legislation” and appoint a commission to work out a number of unresolved issues. “This is the right thing to do morally and, as polls suggest the SNP may be about to discover, it is almost certainly the right thing to do politically.”
Our advice was ignored and MSPs passed the Bill, which was then blocked by the Conservative government at Westminster. Now Nicola Sturgeon, the then First Minister, has admitted “I didn't anticipate as much as I should or engage as much as I should on some of the concerns...” and that she should indeed have paused the legislation.
One critic, former SNP MP Joanna Cherry, described this as an “extraordinary turnaround”, and asked: “Can those of us she demonised for requesting just that now expect an apology?”
READ MORE: NHS Fife: You have to trust the journalists reporting on the Sandie Peggie v Dr Beth Upton case
‘They are a biological male’
Shortly after the Holyrood vote, a biologically male rapist, formerly known as Adam Graham, but calling himself Isla Bryson, was sent to a women’s prison. In essence, the authorities acted as if self-identification of gender, at the heart of the blocked Bill, had become law.
Following widespread uproar, Bryson was moved to a men’s prison, but the case has been, rightly, held up as an example of the problems caused by gender ideology ever since.
Sturgeon, who is promoting her new book, Frankly, also admitted, clumsily, that “they [Bryson] are a biological male” and that she should have been “much more straightforward” about his gender. “We’d lost all sense of rationality in this debate. I’m partly responsible for that.”
By treating people who raised concerns about the Bill with utter contempt and accusing them of bigotry, Sturgeon ended up damaging efforts to improve trans rights. Similar over-reach has played a role in the case of NHS Fife nurse Sandie Peggie.
Arrogantly dismissing the very real conflicts that exist between trans and women’s rights in the rarefied atmosphere of Holyrood may have felt brave at the time. But it was bad politics, plain and simple, and we are still suffering the consequences to this day.
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