Have courage on gender issue

NICOLA Sturgeon and Sir Keir Starmer are not like the rest of us. They are in a position to make laws. It is difficult to see how they can legislate with clarity for fair income levels, protection from certain sexual crimes, provide for specialist and unique medical facilities, services and treatments for more than 50 per cent of the population with XX chromosomes, if they cannot define them as women (“First Minister comes under fire after refusing to define meaning of ‘woman’”, The Herald, May 3).

It would be instructive for both to listen each weekday to Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4, where many medical and other matters applicable only to those with XX chromosomes are examined and discussed by adults who describe themselves as women. The lack of HRT has been a prominent issue this week (“Study reveals career toll of menopause”, The Herald, May 2). Its lack of supply does not affect the health of those of the human species with XY chromosomes.

I suspect, with some certainty, that both do know the definition of a woman, because they have fought for the advancement of women in politics, and for the extension of rights for women previously enjoyed only by males, but now lack the moral courage to face down a tiny group of zealots who would have us all deny biological reality. Not being like the rest of us, their failure to state the obvious should worry us all. Jim Sillars,

Edinburgh.