Sturgeon dismisses concerns on gender reform as ‘invalid’
CONCERNS about gender reform were yesterday dismissed as ‘not valid’ by Nicola Sturgeon.
The First Minister said ‘collective responsibility’ meant SNP ministers who oppose changes to the law may still be forced to vote for it.
It comes just days after her Programme for Government confirmed that the controversial Gender Recognition Act, which will allow people to selfdeclare their gender, will be published in the next 12 months.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We should focus on the real threats to women, not the
‘Make it less degrading’
threats that – while I appreciate some of these views are very sincerely held – in my view they are not valid.’
Finance Secretary Kate Forbes previously signed a letter alongside other ministers urging caution on the plans.
Earlier this week, she said she hoped that ‘nobody’s voice is silenced in this debate’ and that ministers should ‘take on board concerns and worries that have been raised’.
Business Minister Ivan McKee and Community Safety Minister Ash Denham were the other current ministers who signed the letter.
Asked yesterday if ministers would be required to vote in favour, Miss Sturgeon said that was usually the case unless a ‘free vote’ was declared.
She said: ‘We take decisions before we get to votes, both in a parliamentary group sense and as government, as to whether free votes apply, and there have been decisions taken in the past to allow people free votes.
‘That’s not a point we’ve got to yet but generally the principle is, for ministers, that collective responsibility applies.’ She added: ‘I don’t think anybody could accuse me of rushing into this. There’s been two public consultations, we have listened very carefully, but we had a manifesto commitment to move forward with this.’
She also rejected criticisms of the reforms, including that women could be put at risk.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Gender recognition reform is about changing an existing process to make it less degrading, intrusive and traumatic for one of the most stigmatised minorities in our society – and I think that is a good thing to do.
‘It does not change in any way, shape or form legal protections that women have and that’s something that’s very important to me as a lifelong feminist.’
She said threats to women’s safety and rights came from sexism, misogyny, abusive and predatory men, plus lawmakers in other countries trying to take away the right of women to control their own bodies.
Policy analyst Murray Blackburn Mackenzie said the use of single-sex exceptions under the 2010 Equality Act was already compromising the rights of women and girls. The collective added: ‘Under a self-declaration model these are likely to deteriorate further.’