Thread by @boswelltoday

1/10🧵
For over a decade, the Scottish Government quietly rewrote the legal meaning of “woman” — not through Parliament, but through policy. No law. No debate. Just guidance, data rules and admin tweaks. This was self-ID by stealth. Here’s how they pulled it off.⬇️

2/10
In 2014, the prison service let a trans rights lobbyist help draft its transgender prisoner policy. Male offenders could be housed with women. No vote. No scrutiny. Just a quiet shift, dressed as inclusion. A small policy. Huge consequences.

3/10
In 2018, the Public Boards Act was redefined to count biological males as women — even without legal transition. It took @ForWomenScot and a court ruling to strike it down. The government had tried to rewrite protected characteristics by sleight of hand.

4/10
In 2021, schools were told to let boys identifying as girls use girls’ toilets and changing rooms. The guidance claimed there was no legal obligation for single-sex spaces. No consultation. Just state-sanctioned policy capture.

5/10
Then came the data. Public bodies were told to record identity, not biology. Male rapists could now appear as “female” in crime stats — and did. This wasn’t a system error. It was official guidance from the Scottish Government.

6/10
Scotland’s 2022 census allowed self-ID on the sex question — regardless of birth certificate or legal status. The rest of the UK refused. Holyrood embedded gender ideology into the national record — and called it progress.

7/10
By the time the GRR Bill hit headlines, self-ID had already crept into prisons, schools, the NHS, and official data. The bill failed, but the principles behind it were already policy. Unvoted. Undebated. Unseen.

8/10
Then came Isla Bryson. A male double rapist with post-conviction-onset dysphoria, identifying as female, sent to a women’s prison. Ministers acted shocked — but the policy that allowed it had been in place for years. The public just hadn’t been told.

9/10
In April 2025, the UK Supreme Court ruled that “sex” in the Equality Act means biological sex. The scaffolding collapsed. Much of Scotland’s guidance — on schools, crime, prisons — was now unlawful. And suddenly, silence.

10/10
This wasn’t inclusion. It was deception. Rights were redefined through admin memos. The public was never asked. And now the courts have caught up, the façade is falling. Scotland was ground zero for self-ID by stealth.