Gender Recognition Reform Bill: Nicola Sturgeon must pause legislation for transgender self-ID – Scotsman comment

When thinking about complicated issues – as the transgender debate certainly is – it can be helpful to start from first principles.

Nicola Sturgeon should pause the Gender Recognition Reform Bill and set up a commission to find solutions to potential problems (Picture: Jane Barlow/pool/Getty Images)

A central tenet of liberal philosophy – the foundation of democracy to which virtually all elected politicians subscribe – is that everyone is an individual. From this idea flows a number of others. If the only thing known about a group of people is that they are all individuals, there is no way to elevate one or discriminate against another and so, at a fundamental level, we are all equal.

This means that if anyone says they are not being treated equally then this is a claim that must be taken seriously as, if true, it is an affront to the values of a liberal democracy – regardless of their gender status.

The current system of recognising a change of gender is a tortuous one and is over-ripe for reform. We agree it should be made easier.

However, the problem with turning a lengthy and involved system into a simple one is that this makes it practically possible for people acting in bad faith to abuse it. For example, there is a risk that predatory men who are not transgender could use this as a way to access women-only spaces such as female prisons and refuges. To highlight this as a potential concern and seek to protect vulnerable women who have been victims of male violence is not transphobic.

Some of those who raise such issues have a tendency to frame them as if they were fundamental obstacles that cannot be overcome. However, with calm, reasoned discussion and a degree of compromise, it should be possible to find a way to get past them. If that discussion does not take place, the obstacles will remain and the cause of trans rights will be damaged.

Nicola Sturgeon could have brought together the calmer heads on both sides of this debate to seek ways to make meaningful reforms while avoiding potential pitfalls. Given the first Scottish Government consultation was held in 2017, there was plenty of time for this to happen.

But the First Minister paid too little attention to the issue, dithered and delayed, and then introduced the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which contains legislation to allow gender self-identification, with open contempt for those raising concerns. As a result, many transgender activists understandably view calls for further delay as a cynical tactic by their opponents in an increasingly bitter ‘culture war’.

Cries of “transphobe” and “bigot” have had a chilling effect on the debate, as have accusations that politicians who support gender reform "hate" women. Such angry rhetoric only helps justify mutual disdain, and it is hard to negotiate in a peaceful, democratic way – vital to achieving real, lasting social reforms – when passions are so high.

The decision of some of our elected representatives, including Sturgeon, to pick a side, rather than engage in the hard work of bringing the two camps together has created an unedifying situation which has brought shame on our political class and which may backfire badly. If the Bill is passed this week, court challenges will almost certainly follow.

The wisest course is to pause the legislation – as requested by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls – then set up a commission of representatives from both sides to thrash out the various issues one by one.

This is the right thing to do morally and, as polls suggest the SNP may be about to discover, it is almost certainly the right thing to do politically.