Trans woman says there has been huge increase in transphobia since Scotland's gender reform debate

"Tough” six months for Scotland’s trans community

A Scottish trans woman claims transphobic abuse has increased significantly in the six months since the vote on gender reforms.

As Scotland marks its first Pride month since the debate, Ellie Gomersall, 23, says too often transphobia is allowed to spread unchallenged.

Back in December MSPs passed a bill to make it easier for trans people to get a gender recognition certificate, allowing them to legally change their gender.

Ellie Gomersall. Picture: Christian Gamauf

The bill proposed lowering the age someone can get a certificate from 18 to 16 and removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

It also looked to reduce the time someone needs to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months. For 16 and 17 year olds, it is six months.

This bill was passed in the Scottish Parliament by 86 votes to 39 but was blocked by the UK Government over claims it impacted on UK-wide legislation.

Ms Gomersall, from Glasgow, has been openly trans for five years and hasn’t got a gender recognition certificate because of the waiting lists for a psychiatric assessment.

Ellie Gomersall. Image: Christian Gamauf.

She says there has been an increase in transphobia since the vote, and worries abuse towards the trans community is becoming normalised.

Ms Gomersall said: “It has been tough. During the gender reform debate there was a huge amount of discourse on trans rights that was not particularly pleasant.

“At the time this was packaged up as legitimate opposition to the bill rather than opposition to trans people, but now we have people actively supporting misinformation and a huge increase in outright transphobia.”

Ms Gomersall, who is a member of the Scottish Greens, says this abuse is often platformed on social media and goes unchallenged.

Ellie Gomersall. Image: Christian Gamauf.

Since the vote one of the biggest discussions on trans rights has been around violent prisoners who claim they are transgender and have asked to be placed in a women’s prison.

The Scottish Government has had to step in on a number of high-profile cases to either block or reverse this.

Ms Gomersall says this has led to the reputation of the entire trans community being “tarnished”: “In recent months trans people have had horrendous, unfounded accusations of being paedophiles or of grooming children.

“This outright transphobia can be hugely damaging and can lead to an increase in violence towards a marginalised community.”

Pride is back

A new report from the Crown Office says there were 55 reports of hate crime against trans people in 2022/23, the second highest since 2010. This had dropped from 86 in 2021/22.

Ms Gomersall says now is the time for everyone in Scotland to be more aware of this abuse and to work harder at calling out transphobia.

She said: “It is about taking responsibility and really thinking about the consequences of what is being said.

“I want to call out politicians behaving irresponsibly.

“We are a group of people who are under attack and we need support, solidarity and allyship - it is more than just putting up a rainbow flag to tick a few boxes.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said transphobia is “completely unacceptable” and said its hate crime strategy will help to tackle prejudice.

They added they are working on LGBT+ equality and understand trans people suffer more than other groups.