Thread by @VoteWithOurFeet

Long but important thread: Women Voting With Our Feet were this week invited to meet @ShonaRobison, the Cabinet Secretary who will steer reform of the Gender Recognition Act through the Scottish Parliament #no2selfID 1/

We made our point that, while we appreciated the invitation, calling it at 3 days’ notice suggested a less-than-collegiate approach to listening to ALL views on GRA reform despite the manifesto promise of @NicolaSturgeon 2/

Shona Robison told us reform is essential because being trans is no longer considered a medical issue. However, *only* the process of gaining a gender recognition certificate will change with reform by “demedicalising” the process 3/

We asked how the Scottish Government could uphold the protected characteristics in the Equality Act if gender (sex) self-identification is introduced, using examples of questions we had heard from women at our street stalls 4/

The response was expected but still disappointing. Shona Robison insisted the violations of single-sex spaces or failure to uphold EqA exemptions are nothing to do with GRA reform but simply the result of service decisions made by individual organisations 5/

Us: “How will the EqA be upheld if any man who says he’s a woman can access women’s services or be employed to deliver them?”

Shona Robison: “I don’t run Scottish Women’s Aid” 6/

Shona Robison said “nothing changes” the EqA with GRA reform and reform will have “no impact” on anything else in society. We made the point that self-ID is de facto policy in across Scotland even before any reform and is a policy that upends cultural norms and conventions 7/

Shona Robison said @scotgov is monitoring the effects of self-ID where the policy is already in place but claimed there had been no issues anywhere. We argue evidence from Ireland, Canada, Argentina and here in the UK where self-ID is unofficial shows that claim to be untrue 8/

When the issue of transgender prisoners in Scotland’s jail was raised, she suggested we “feed” in to the Scottish Prison Service transgender prisoner policy – a policy and consequences that have nothing to do with her, guv #PontiusPilate 9/

Shona Robison did concede concerns about who provides intimate personal care are “valid” but said service providers would rely on risk assessments. She had no response to our point that if you ignore the reality of sex, risk assessments are worthless 10/

Shona Robison promised to respond further to our question about single-sex sport, although she again fell back on the line of “that’s up to individual sporting bodies to decide” 11/

We left this meeting with the clear impression GRA reform will be pushed through regardless of any concern or acknowledgement of its impact. Ministers will wash their hands of any fallout by leaving it to individual orgs to make their own policies and risk assessments 12/

The Scottish Government does not recognise or understand our concern that sex self-ID is a social engineering project that has already broken down social conventions and allowed gender identity to trump sex at all times 13/

We are more determined than ever to stop self-ID, which we see as an ideological assault on women’s rights. The gloves are off. This is the fight of our lives. We will work with everyone standing against this legislation #no2selfID #BinTheBill #WomenWontWheesht 14/

PS @ShonaRobison told us Thursday am GRA reform legislation would come before the Scottish Parliament “before the summer”. Lo and behold, that very afternoon Holyrood Magazine revealed it will, in fact, happen next month. Honest mistake or deliberately misleading? You decide 15/

PPS And now you know why we launched our fundraiser on Thursday evening. We need all the resources possible to continue resisting this regressive legislation and protect women's rights #no2selfID 16/