Stif ling debate

THE debate over reform of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) is as contentious as it is complex, but Nicola sturgeon has come up with a nifty solution.

The First Minister has decided there is no debate. That is the clear implication of her comments dismissing the views of women who disagree with her as ‘not valid’.

Miss sturgeon is determined to tear up the GRA, the legislation governing how an individual goes about being legally recognised as a ‘gender identity’ different from the sex they were born. Internal sNP dissent and the pandemic stymied her crusade in the last parliament but her coalition with the like-minded Greens has put the issue back on the table.

A change in the law, touted in this week’s Programme for Government, would see medical experts removed from the process and people allowed to ‘self-identify’ as whatever they consider their gender to be.

Murray Blackburn Mackenzie, a respected public policy group, says the First Minister’s remarks ‘show a failure to understand the nature of GRA reform and its implications for women and girls’.

They also show an imperious, intolerant attitude towards discussion of a difficult matter in which there are complex arguments on both sides.

When the First Minister says women’s views are ‘not valid’ when they fail to conform, she is aligning herself with a dangerous, authoritarian mindset.