Women’s rights used as cloak to be transphobic, claims Sturgeon

First Minister accused of desperate attempt to smear opponents of her reforms after rapist row

NICOLA STURGEON has accused some opponents of her gender reforms of using women’s rights as a “cloak” for their transphobia, misogyny, homophobia and racism.

Shortly after announcing a transgender rapist would be moved out of a women’s prison, she said some critics of her self-id plans were “deeply misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well”.

She also told Global’s The News Agents podcast that as a “general principle someone who rapes a woman should not be in a women’s prison”.

However, the First Minister then raised the prospect of exceptions being made by warning “the danger of any blanket approach is you end up having a different effect to the one you want, because you catch cases that should be dealt with in a different way”.

She made the intervention in an interview conducted shortly after she told MSPS that Isla Bryson, who was this week convicted of raping two women, would be moved from Cornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling to an all-male jail.

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, accused her of a “desperate” attempt to smear opponents of the reforms. He attacked her “utterly shameful language that shows just how far from public opinion she is”.

In a series of tweets on the case, the author JK Rowling said: “Never forget, Sturgeon, her government and supporters have insisted that it is ludicrous to imagine anyone would dress in women’s clothes to get access to vulnerable women and girls. Wouldn’t happen. Everyone is who they say they are. To question this is hate.”

Court chiefs wanted to send Bryson to Glasgow’s men-only Barlinnie prison after the rapist’s conviction. The 31-year-old was named Adam Graham when committing the rapes and has not legally changed gender.

However, they were overruled by the SPS, which followed guidance stating that trans criminals should be sent to the prison that matches their self-identified gender that they were living in prior to their conviction.

Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, said the Bryson case demonstrated the flaws with Nicola Sturgeon’s gender self-id legislation, which were recently vetoed over the impact on Uk-wide protections for women.

Mr Jack said the problems had arisen from an SPS policy “based on self-id without objective checks and balances” and Ms Sturgeon’s Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill would similarly have “removed important safeguards”.

Ms Sturgeon has refused to say whether she considers Bryson to be a man or woman. She told the podcast that Holyrood would shortly be considering legislation to tackle low conviction rates for rape and sexual assault and the creation of “buffer zones” around abortion clinics where protesters are banned.

“I think it will be interesting to see how many of the so-called defenders of women’s rights in the context of the trans debate suddenly don’t think that all women’s rights are actually important,” the First Minister said.