The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is a bill passed by the Scottish Parliament which seeks to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2004 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It makes it simpler for people to change their legal gender by changing the process to getting a gender recognition certificate (GRC). A GRC is a certificate that legally recognises that a person’s gender is not the gender that they were assigned at birth, but is their “acquired gender”. The changes include reducing the minimum age a person can apply for a GRC from eighteen to sixteen, and removing the need for both a medical diagnosis and evidence of having lived for two years in their acquired gender to three months.
However, Rishi Sunak’s government has decided to block the implementation of the Scottish Gender
Recognition Reform Bill, through an order under Section 35 of the Scotland Act.
This decision was met with unrest by the Scottish Government and a great deal of LGBT supporters. First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon, argued that this was a “full frontal attack on [Scottish] democracy,” and that the Scottish Government would “defend the legislation and stand up for Scotland’s Parliament”, by taking the matter to court. Stonewall, the largest LGBT rights organisation in Europe, put out a statement saying, “this is now a constitutional matter between the UK Government and the Scottish Government. It is a matter of grave and profound regret that the Prime Minister has allowed trans people’s lives to be used as a political football”. In addition, hundreds of people gathered at the steps of the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on Saturday 21st January in protest against the UK Government’s decision.
The UK Government has published a number of reasons why it is preventing the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill from proceeding to Royal Assent. This includes the fact it will be problematic for a citizen of the UK to have a different gender and legal sex depending upon where they happen to be within the UK, and which system of law applies to them. However, the grounds which has been up for most debate in recent weeks have been that the reformed system will be open to “abuse and malicious actors”.
Since the bill makes it much easier for people to legally change gender, the UK Government claims that the bill removes a number of “important safeguards” in the process. By only having to have lived in their acquired gender for three months, it has been argued that there is a much greater risk of people abusing the system and attaining a GRC with ill intent. The concern regarding fraudulent applications and malicious actors is particularly unsettling regarding sex-segregated spaces, competitive sports and occupational requirements. In certain settings, sex separation can be critical to ensure the safety of females. If almost anyone can change their legal sex by obtaining a GRC, it could seriously challenge the standards for safe and empowering public spaces for women and girls. Therefore, whilst many supporters of the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill have asserted that this bill has no implications for anyone other than trans people, in reality, it well could do.
Transgender rights activist and former officer of the British Army, Hannah Graf appeared on the ITV Breakfast programme, Lorraine, where she disputed the concern over the impact of the bill one women’s safety. She stated, “Predatory men do not need this bill to be predatory… This bill is about how I legally change my Gender Recognition Certificate which is how I become a legal woman. How often do you go through your life showing your birth certificate?”. Whilst Graf’s points are valid, they overlook the fact that some “predatory men” could be able to use this bill as an opportunity to be predatory towards women. It is almost the same as saying that robberies are going to happen anyway, so there is no need to take the extra precaution of double-locking the door.
In light of the events that have occurred in the past year, such as the murder of Sarah Everard, women’s faith in the services that are there to keep them safe has been debilitated. This is a large reason why the Scotland Gender Recognition Reform Bill has been a source of much controversy, and one which may well continue to be so.