The UK government has blocked a new law intended to allow trans people in Scotland to change their legal gender without a medical diagnosis, a controversial move that has added fuel to the already highly emotional debate over Scottish independence.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, called the intervention “an all-out frontal attack on our democratically elected Scottish Parliament and its ability to make its own decisions on delegated matters,” in a post on Twitter on Monday.
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, the minister representing Scotland in the UK government, announced on Monday that Westminster had taken the highly unusual step of preventing the Scottish bill from becoming law because it was concerned about its impact on the equality laws across the UK, a justification trans rights groups dismissed.
Here’s what you need to know:
What’s in Scottish law?
The law is designed to make it easier for people in Scotland to change their legal gender.
Under the current system, trans people must go through a series of obstacles to change the gender marker on their documents. They must have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a condition defined by distress caused by a discrepancy between a person’s body and their gender identity, and show that they have been living in their chosen gender for two years. They must also be at least 18 years old.
The new rules would remove the medical diagnosis requirement and move to self-determination. The waiting time would be reduced from two years to six months and the age limit would be lowered to 16 years.
Why did Scotland want to change the rules?
Activists have long argued that the current process is too bureaucratic, expensive and intrusive. The Scottish government held two large public consultations on the issue, and then proposed the new, simpler rules.
“We believe that trans people should not have to go through a process that can be demeaning, intrusive, harrowing and stressful to be legally recognized in their lived gender,” the government said in proposing the new rules.
In the end, a substantial majority of Scottish lawmakers from across the political spectrum voted in favor of the change last month; the final tally was 86 in favor and 39 against.
What was the reaction in Scotland?
The bill provoked an emotional reaction on both sides. Debate over the proposal was one of the longest and most heated in the history of the Scottish Parliament and the final vote had to be postponed after the session was interrupted by protesters shouting “shame” at lawmakers.
Many human rights and equality organizations and activists welcomed the new rules, pointing to a growing number of democratic countries where self-determination is the norm.
The Equality Network, a leading Scottish LGBTI rights group, said that “after years of growing public prejudice against trans people, things have started to move on.”
But the bill also drew a lot of criticism, including from some lawmakers from the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) and “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling, who said the law could have a detrimental effect on rights of women and girls.
Rowling and other opponents of the bill argued that it would weaken protections for spaces designed to make women feel safe, such as women-only shelters.
The Scottish government rejected that argument, saying the law did not change the rules about who can and cannot access single-sex spaces. He also said that the experiences of countries that have made similar changes did not show an adverse impact on other groups.
The activists agreed. “There are no downsides,” said LGBTQ campaign group Stonewall. “For example, when Ireland did it, no one else was affected except trans people, who for the first time were able to get their gender recognized by the state in a direct and empowering way.”
Why is the UK government involved?
Scotland has decentralized government, which means that many, but not all, decisions are made in the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh.
Scots can pass their own laws on issues like healthcare, education and the environment, while the UK Parliament in Westminster remains in charge of issues like defence, national security, migration and foreign policy.
The UK government can prevent Scottish bills from becoming law, but only in a few very specific cases, for example if it believes that the Scottish bill would be incompatible with any international agreement or with the interests of the defense and national security, or if you think the bill would conflict with a UK-wide law on an issue outside Scotland’s powers.
Under the rules that set out how Scotland is governed, London has four weeks to review a bill after it is approved by Holyrood, after which it is sent to the King for royal assent, the last formal step that must be taken before let it become law. .
The deadline for intervention in the new gender bill expired at the end of this week.
But many in Scotland have accused the UK government of playing politics and blocking the new bill for political, rather than constitutional, reasons.
“Whatever their opinion is on the bill, people vote in Scottish parliamentary elections thinking they are choosing the MSPs who will represent [and] legislate for them on delegated matters,” said Emma Roddick, Member of the Scottish Parliament for the SNP. “[UK Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak has proven what the SNP has said for decades: that’s only true as long as Westminster wants it to be. Two-thirds majority in favor of a bill within the decentralized competition: the conservatives we did not elect want to strike it down for political reasons.”
What is the UK government’s argument?
In his statement, Jack argued that the bill would affect equality legislation across the UK.
Power over gender recognition laws is transferred to the Scottish government, but Westminster sets the legislation governing equality.
“The bill would have a significant impact, among other things, on GB equality issues in Scotland, England and Wales. I have therefore concluded that (blocking it) is the necessary and correct course of action.”
But advocates disagree. Rights group TransActual told CNN in a statement that it saw “no justification” for the UK government’s decision to block the bill out of concerns about equality laws across the UK.
“There is no justification for this action by the Scottish secretary, Alister Jack. He will lose any case brought by the Scottish government, because the Equality Act is 100% independent of the Gender Recognition Act, and nothing in the Scottish bill changes that. , Helen Belcher, president of TransActual, said in a statement.
“Trans people have never needed gender recognition to be protected by the Equality Law,” he added.
Whats Next?
The Scottish Government cannot overturn the decision. If you want to move the legislation forward, you have two options: amend the bill and return it to the Scottish Parliament, or challenge the UK government in court.
Jack said he hoped to find “a constructive way forward” if the Scottish government decided to make changes to the law and reintroduce it.
However, that seems unlikely. Sturgeon said in a tweet on Monday that his government would “uphold the legislation and stand up for the Scottish Parliament.”
There is no precedent as the UK government has never before used its power to block Scottish legislation in this way.
What is the political background here?
Over the past few years, the UK government has relied on the anti-trans culture wars debate in an attempt to appeal to the traditional Conservative Party base and working-class voters in the north of England who have switched allegiance to the opposition Labor Party in the last elections. .
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government had stalled a number of initiatives for the country’s LGBTQ community, including plans to make it easier for transgender people to change their gender markers in England and Wales.
Doubts remain as to whether it is an electorally viable strategy. However, before becoming prime minister, one of Sunak’s first promises during the Conservative Party leadership race in 2022 was to protect “women’s rights”, he wrote in a Twitter post.
The post linked to an article in which an anonymous Sunak ally told the Daily Mail that Sunak would create a manifesto opposing trans women competing in women’s sports and call on schools to “be more careful about the way they that teach about issues of sex and gender.
At the same time, tensions between London and Edinburgh over the issue of Scottish independence have been on the rise in recent years.
When Scotland held a referendum in 2014, voters rejected the prospect of independence 55% to 45%, but the political landscape has changed since then, mainly due to Brexit.
A majority of Scots voted to remain in the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and the pro-independence Scottish National Party has argued that Scots were taken out of the EU against their will. The SNP is pushing for a new independence vote, but the UK government has said it will not agree to one.
Britain’s High Court ruled in November that the Scottish government cannot unilaterally hold a second independence referendum.
The CNN Wire
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