Hate Crime Bill covers Rocky Horror Picture Show cross-dressers
Men who attend a staging of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, dressed in lingerie and stockings, would be protected under the Scottish Government' s new Hate Crime Bill while women who were abused or threatened for wearing similar clothing in public would not be, MSPS have been told.
The issue was raised after Scottish Conservative MSP Liam Kerr asked whether the definition of transgender identity was clear in the Bill, as he had received a “slightly circular answer” from justice secretary Humza Yousaf.
Giving evidence to the committee on behalf of the feminist organisation For Women Scotland, Susan Smith said she was concerned the definition included men who were cross-dressers. She said a Freedom of Information response had shown the definition came from the Equality Network in emails to the Scottish Government.
An email from Tim Hopkins, director of the Equality Net work that campaigns on LGBT+ issues, said: “A man who is not at rans woman, but wears a dress for a drag performance, or a trip to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, or because he feels an emotional need to cross-dress occasionally is at high risk oft rans phobic hate crime and it is very likely that a perpetrator could later claim that they have no issue with ‘trans women who are really transitioning’ and only had a problem with men dressing up as women without transitioning, so when they used the term ‘tranny’ in the attack, they were only referring to transvestism/ crossdressing.
“The aggravation would not then apply if transvestism/ cross-dressing is removed from the protection, because the prejudice was based on cross-dressing, not on gender identity.”
Ms Smith said: “This is evidently there to protect men because it’s hard to think of any circumstance where a woman would be considered a crossdresser. But it’s also setting up a scenario where a man and a woman wearing the same costume going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and the man is a victim of a hate crime, but the woman may potentially find herself, when the case goes to court, being asked ‘what were you wearing ?’ There’s a bizarre and frankly sexist basis to that.”