@NicolaSturgeon "doesn’t want pesky feminists scrutinising reform of the Gender Recognition Act. She wants it to pass committee stage on Tues, unrevised by 150 tabled amendments, the whole bill rammed through before Christmas"
A perfect summary! #Scarfgate
thetimes.co.uk/article/nicola…
A middle-aged scientist sitting quietly in a Scot parliament committee hearing was approached by a security guard. Either she must remove her purple, white and green scarf or leave the proceedings. (She left.) 2 other women were forced to take off similar coloured tartan scarves.
A fourth, in a plain purple scarf, was told to open her coat to check for signs of white and green.
The scientist questioned a security official and, squirming, he said he’d been told these colours were “political” and “associated with the women’s movement”.
Indeed: they are suffragette livery. After an online hoo-ha inevitably named “scarfgate”, the presiding officer (the Scot parliament’s Speaker) solemnly apologised for the security “error”. But the question remains: who had decided women must be surveilled for signs of sedition?
The truth is Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t want pesky feminists scrutinising reform of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA). She wants it to pass committee stage on Tuesday, unrevised by 150 tabled amendments, then the whole bill rammed through before Christmas.
That was the @theSNP’s coalition agreement with the @Scottishgreen and they will do it, whatever the reckless consequences.
The bill alters the process for obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC), which permits change to the legal sex on a birth certificate.
A present a trans person must be over 18, have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria & must have “lived in acquired gender” for 2 years. The SNP plans to reduce the minimum age to 16, & require 3 months in “acquired gender” plus a simple statutory declaration known as “self-ID”
Since there is no need to physically transition at all & no def of living as a woman, an SNP minister suggests it might mean changing the name on your gas bill, any man could become fully, legally female on his say-so alone.
There’s a notional 2-year prison sentence for making a false declaration. But when legal definitions are so intangible, what constitutes “false”? Last year the Scottish gov allowed GRC-holders to change the date and location of their weddings on their marriage certificates
to protect their identity. When public documents can be falsified at whim, what is “truth”?
The scarf-wearers have endured years of verbal and physical bullying for pointing out implications for women.
Under the UK-wide Equality Act, a GRC does not override biological sex. So sports, domestic violence refuges or intimate searches, as examples, can be kept female-only. But the Scottish gov argued in a recent judicial review that a GRC changes a person’s sex “for all purposes”.
This is calamitous for single-sex wards or rape crisis services, but particularly for women prisoners. The British Psychological Society has warned of rising “cases where men convicted of sex crimes have falsely claimed to be transgender females” to move to the women’s estate.
This has already led to sexual assaults. Currently in Scotland most trans-identified male prisoners remain, after risk assessment, in men’s jails. But Scot gov refuses to clarify whether self-ID would give them automatic transfer to women’s prisons, as in Ireland & many US states
One modest amendment proposed that registered sex offenders should be ineligible to obtain GRCs, possession of which would allow them into women’s spaces and could, in effect, let them conceal their prior identity and offending history.
Scot gov rejected this on human rights grounds. It's not addressed fears that this will also render DBS checks worthless.Ironically Scot gov is driving through GRA reform to prove progressive credentials compared with backward, conservative England just as global opinion turns.
Concern that a worldwide spike in mentally ill teenage girls identifying as boys is caused by social contagion has led to new clinical caution. The independent Cass review into England’s child gender services notes that social transition,
changing your name & pronouns, is “not a neutral act” but propels children towards hormones & surgery. What bigger, more concrete act of social transition than changing your legal birth sex! How are schools expected to treat a 16yr old male child with a female birth certificate?
Already GRA reform has provoked SNP government’s biggest ever rebellion & the resignation of the minister Ash Regan, who said her conscience wouldn’t allow her to support the bill because it endangered women & girls. Polls suggest public opposition to these radical, hasty reforms
Self-ID was not even in the SNP manifesto, so why is Sturgeon squandering so much political capital?
Some believe she seeks a tangible legacy, which, given the parlous state of Scottish education and NHS, she lacks. Or that, cynically, she would like the Westminster government to
strike down her new GRA if it believes it undermines protections under the Equality Act. Then Sturgeon could enjoy a proxy nationalist battle in the Supreme Court: see how the English won’t let us make our own laws!
So, backed by supine Labour MSPs who conceal their many private misgivings, this deep hasty new law will be whipped through. The safeguarding of young people, female dignity, hard-won rights and truth itself, all chucked aside for ideology and political expediency.
Despite the tireless efforts of the women in suffragette scarves!
#WomenWontWheesht
#ScarfGate

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More from @Scot_Feminists

Nov 9
Today we watched the 1st day's proceedings today of @ForWomenScot taking @scotgov to court. The topic is really very niche but will impact us all if the Judge rules for @scotgov (we won't know the outcome for at least a month or 2) so let's share what we learned 1/
Let's say you are male, called John, & you feel uncomfortable in your body for some reason. You acquire a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) that allows you to change the sex on your birth certificate to female. We'll call this John's "certificated sex" 2/
Scottish Gov says that this GRC makes John female in ALL respects. So you ask for a female Doctor to do your smear & John turns up to do it because his certificated sex is now female. You attend a rape counselling session (job description was for females only) & John runs it 3/
Read 15 tweets
Nov 8
The Scottish Feminist Network would like to wish @ForWomenScot very good luck in Court tomorrow. They've a judicial review of wording Scottish Government added as a result of the last judicial review @ForWomenScot took @scotgov to court for
#DeedsNotWords
forwomen.scot/18/07/2022/jud…
@ForWomenScot won last time & the ruling said that no-one can redefine "woman" in law away from that defined in the Equality Act. This time they are challenging whether a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) can change a person's sex in ALL respects (@scotgov says yes!) 2/
This case is directly relevant to legislation currently making its way through the Scottish Parliament, the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. The GRR Bill would allow a male to acquire a GRC on their say so & expect to be treated as female in law in ALL respects 3/
Read 4 tweets
Nov 8
Another scotgov-funded charity dictating that we must believe in order to benefit from their benevolence. And we must believe that there are more than 2 sexes, that anyone can change sex and you must use the language of the compelled, or else!
For party read Scottish Government Image
The trust declined to say who is on its equality, diversity and inclusion advisory group, which ensures “that our principles are more proactively embedded in all aspects of our work”. It states it is opposed to “all forms of bigotry”.
Read 4 tweets
Nov 5
As we may have mentioned just a few times there's a Bill going through Scottish Parliament that will allow anyone from age of 16 to change the sex on their birth certificate. It will require no medical diagnosis (unlike rest of UK) so it's referred to as "Self ID" 1/
#NoToSelfID
This Gender Recognition Bill (#GRRBill) will require an applicant to "live in their acquired gender" for 3 months prior to application (2 years in RUK & no-one knows what this actually entails, but it's okay because no-one will check in Scotland) 2/
#NoToSelfID
Every Bill is given to a Parliamentary committee to handle & @SP_EHRCJ deals with the #GRRBill and @JoeFitzSNP chairs it. Women have attended every hearing, watched on Parliament TV. No-one is convinced sufficient scrutiny was given to the Bill, so many questions unanswered 3/ Image
Read 25 tweets
Nov 2
Scotland's in a weird place right now. We have the case of a v busy man, Alan (with previous convictions) who has appeared in court in Dundee & on the same day had charges against him as a man and different charges against him as a "woman", Alannah 1/
thescottishsun.co.uk/news/9701112/f…
3rd Jan Alan was charged with acting in a threatening/abusive manner
23rd March, same charge & spitting & flashing
Referred to as he in the court (crimes almost certainly recorded as male crimes) 2/
24 Feb Alannah was charged with acting in a threatening & abusive manner
24 April Alannah wields a knife & makes threats.
Referred to as she in the court (crimes almost certainly recorded as female crimes)
The same day remember, today this happened. /3
Read 10 tweets
Oct 31
It's Halloween, All Saint's Eve. A fitting time to mark the death of some historical witches, on behalf of the contemporary Scottish Witches 🧙‍♀️
First we have the Forfar Witches: 1/
#WomensWontWheesht
scottish-gatherings.50megs.com/page119.html
Led by the Church of Scotland, even consulting with a 🧙‍♀️ was a crime. Why? We're lovely! 2/ Image
Read 10 tweets

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