John Swinney warns businesses against transgender spaces knee-jerk response

John Swinney has suggested businesses and organisations in Scotland should not implement controversial interim guidance by the UK equalities watchdog and instead "wait for definitive full guidance" to "give legal clarity".

The First Minister was speaking to journalists on Monday after he used he speech at the STUC congress in Dundee to “reaffirm” his Government’s pledge to protect LGBTQ+ rights. The move comes in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement that issued a new definition of a woman in the Equality Act as referring to a biological woman.

John Swinney has warned against a knee-jerk reaction for organisations to ban trans people from spaces | PA

The right of transgender people to legally become their acquired gender in law is still set out in the UK-wide Gender Recognition Act.

Speaking in front of Scotland’s leading trade unionists, Mr Swinney said he was renewing his pledge to the LGBTQ+ community, “specifically the rights of trans men and trans women in our society”.

READ MORE: SNP MSP wants John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon to say sorry to transgender people after Supreme Court ruling

He said: “I know that for trans people there will be feelings of enormous uncertainty and anxiety at this moment in time.

People from the transgender community hold a protest against the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images | Getty Images

“I am determined to fulfil my obligation, which I took on when I became First Minister that I will act as First Minister to protect the rights of everyone in Scotland today.”

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon defiant as she is quizzed on Supreme Court trans ruling

On Friday, the EHRC published what it called “interim guidance” that suggests trans women should be banned from women-only spaces and trans men should be banned from men-only spaces. There are also calls for some associations in clubs to be able to ban trans people.

In a joint letter to Holyrood’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee, chief executive of the Equality Network, Dr Rebecca Don Kennedy, and Vic Valentine, manger of Scottish Trans, have warned MSPs the interim guidance “goes even wider than we feared”.

The letter adds: “The EHRC’s interim update focuses solely on excluding trans people from both associations and single-sex services and spaces.

READ MORE: Supreme Court sex definition will have huge impact

“It also suggests the segregation of trans people at times where they consider that the UK Supreme Court judgment requires they should be treated as their ‘biological sex’, but doing so would offend others.”

Mr Swinney told journalists “it is important that all of our actions are informed by guidance”.

He said: “We expect to get that guidance in the summer and that will give us the necessary guidance to ensure that the steps to implement the Supreme Court position can be taken forward.”

Pressed over whether public bodies should be implementing the interim guidance, Mr Swinney said it was important to have “legal certainty”.

He said: “If we want to approach this in a way that is orderly and effective, I think we have to do that with the benefit of the regulated advice that we get from the official regulator.

“That’s why it’s important to wait for the formal, definitive guidance from the EHRC.

“There is a necessity for us to go forward with legal certainty. Part of that relies upon assuming that we have clarity from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission as the official regulator. As I understand it, that guidance requires ministerial approval from the United Kingdom government.”

Scottish Conservative shadow equalities minister, Tess White, said: “John Swinney shamefully continues to muddy the waters. He should not be dictating to businesses in this way when the Supreme Court ruling could not have been clearer.

“He needs to stop pandering to the gender zealots in his party and instead urgently offer clarity to businesses and Scotland’s public bodies who have adopted gender self-ID due to the policies of the SNP in recent years.

“These attempts to kick this issue into the long grass from John Swinney simply won’t wash.”