Earworm: ‘When two tribes go to war

A point is all that you can score”’

So sang the pop group ‘Frankie goes to Hollywood’ in 1984 and to misquote Kylie Minogue ‘I can’t get it out of my head’ this week as a vote by the Scots in Holyrood is setting off a huge constitutional battle.

The Scottish parliament recently passed a law changing the conditions that must be met for a trans-person to receive a gender recognition certificate.  

No diagnosis or medical reports will be required, and the time applicants must have lived in their acquired gender would be cut from two years to three months. 

The age at which, for example, a biological male can self-identify as female and receive legal recognition of being a woman has been dropped from 18 to 16.

The UK government this week issued a decision to stop this proposed Scottish law being given Royal Assent. 

The reasons given by Alister Jack the Scottish minister focus on legal problems: “My decision today is about the legislation’s consequences for the operation of GB-wide equalities protections and other reserved matters.” 

These consequences include how, practically, it could work if definitions of gender are different in one country in the Union than another.

Unsurprisingly, this situation is being dressed up by supporters of the Scottish bill as a pro-trans or anti-trans issue. Such polarisation does not advance any discussion about what is after all a painful clash of freedoms. If it becomes so easy for a male to self-ID as a woman, where does that leave women’s right to safe spaces? 

How can we look after male bodied trans-women who need refuge?

Nicola Sturgeon commented recently that trans people are among the most marginalised in our society. 

That may be the case. 

What is factually true is that two to three women are killed by men every single week. 

Women have good reason to fear male violence. 

The problem is not with trans people.

It is with abusive and disturbed men making false claims they are women trapped in a male body.

The British Psychological Society submitted evidence to the UK parliament and confirmed:

‘… psychologists working with forensic patients are aware of a number of cases where men convicted of sex crimes have falsely claimed to be transgender females for a number of reasons:

As a means of demonstrating reduced risk and so gaining parole; 

As a means of explaining their sex offending aside from sexual gratification (eg wanting to ‘examine’ young females); 

Or as a means of separating their sex offending self (male) from their future self (female). 

In rare cases it has been thought that the person is seeking better access to females and young children through presenting in an apparently female way. 

Consequently, the society recommends that the Government give appropriate assistance to transgender people within the criminal justice system; while being extremely cautious of setting law and policy such that some of the most dangerous people in society have greater latitude to offend.”

You might think from the media that the UK government decision was stopping trans-people getting gender recognition certificates. It is not. The UK decision is simply to stop the Scottish Government from implementing changes to conditions by which a trans person gains that certificate. Those changes undermine existing protections for trans people and their families, as well as the wider populace.

The full evidence from the British Psychological Society can be found here:

http://data.parliament.uk/WrittenEvidence/CommitteeEvidence.svc/EvidenceDocument/Women%20and%20Equalities/Transgender%20Equality/written/19471.html