GENDER reform campaigners have told how they felt “betrayed” by the UK Government’s decision to block the bill from becoming law.
The announcement by Scottish Secretary Alister Jack on Monday night that the Tories would use a little-known section of the Scotland Act to stop the legislation from being given Royal Assent sent shockwaves through Scotland’s LGBT community.
Some suspected it, while others had hoped that the UK Government wouldn’t “weaponise” trans people and risk a constitutional row with the Scottish Government.
“I’m livid, I’m angry, I’m hurt. I feel betrayed,” Amber Roberts, a 35-year-old trans woman living in Edinburgh, told The National.
Beth Douglas, a 29-year-old trans woman from Glasgow, had her suspicions that the rumours and media reports that a Section 35 order was in the works would come to fruition, but the reality still hit hard. “It felt like a punch to the gut,” she said.
"We've been doing this for seven years, we've been having this incredibly toxic debate, and it's a slap in the face to suggest that this has been somehow rushed through.”
Jasper Veart, a 21-year-old trans man from Edinburgh, was more pessimistic and said the “writing was on the wall” in the reaction from Jack in the immediate passing of the bill before Christmas.
“I'm disappointed overall but ultimately my rights haven't changed one bit. It would have been nice,” he said.
Euan Carmichael, a 17-year-old LGBT activist from East Ayrshire, said that his initial concern was for the trans community having to watch hard-fought rights “snatched away by the UK Government”.
“To take that bill away to purposefully score political points because they disagree with it, especially on the basis of trans rights, is a disgrace,” he said.
Both Roberts and Douglas said the decision to use a Section 35 order to obstruct the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was not only an attack on trans rights but on Scottish devolution.
“The Tories are really using trans people as weapons to block Scotland's democracy, and I can't stand for that,” Roberts said.
The row isn’t just about the bill itself and the impact on Scotland’s LGBT community but “bigger”, Douglas added.
She said: “This is about Scotland's Parliament, it's about Scottish democracy, and it's about Scotland's place in the UK.
“I think really what we're seeing at the moment is we're seeing Tories and to a lesser extent Labour, say that they value a culture war higher than devolution.”
Douglas also argues when the reforms pass evidence will show that self-ID "isn't harmful" and that "strengthens the case to introduce it in the rest of the UK".
"That's why the Tories are scared and that's the real reason why they chose to block the legislation," she said.
Vert said he assumed that the UK Government’s decision to use a Section 35 order for the first time was because they respected devolution “in some proportion”.
“Clearly Westminster and this government have shown they’re no longer willing to do that,” he added.
"Tories know they're finished"
The move by the UK Government, set to be challenged in the courts by the Scottish Government, is seen as purely political by both Roberts and Douglas.
%image('16303602', type="article-full", alt="Jack laid the section 35 order in Holyrood on Tuesday afternoon")
Roberts said: “The Tories know they're finished in Westminster, they know that they're going to lose the next General Election. They're trying to do as much damage as possible before they get voted out.”
Douglas added: “We're sort of seeing a repeat of history at the moment, Margaret Thatcher famously went to war with the trade unions and Section 28. We're now seeing Rishi Sunak go to war with the trade unions and issue Section 35.
“I'm very disappointed in Labour especially because I think any Labour member who is proud of their trade union history, and would click and instantly know what's happening, and they seem to miss that.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer sparked a backlash from his MSPs and LGBT groups the day before the Government’s announcement, telling the BBC he disagreed with the provision in the bill to lower the age to 16 as it was “too young”.
"A step backwards"
In his role as an LGBT champion in his school in East Ayrshire, Carmichael said he spoke to fellow pupils from many different identities who told him “harrowing” stories of not being accepted or rejected at home “only because they’re queer”.
“From my point of view, hearing all of that and then seeing the part of the bill about lowering it to 16 being used as a political football is horrific.
“When young trans people will now see this, it will be a step backwards, because the queer community were seeing the acceptance of things like the conversion therapy ban and the change in the GRA, so to move it backwards, is a step in the wrong direction.”
Veart raised concerns about the impact this will have on the levels of hate crime directed at trans people. In Scotland, hate crimes reported to Police Scotland with a transgender aggravator doubled between 2020-21 (74) and 2021-22 (150).
At the same time, a survey by LGBT Young People Survey found that trans people in Scotland were less likely to report attacks to the police.
“I'm worried about that over the next couple of years, as trans people obviously become more visible and violence, harassment becomes more normalized,” Veart said.
“I think if they [Tories] genuinely have any actual care for trans people they will hopefully see that this is a mistake, but I have a feeling they won’t.”
As the constitutional row between the Scottish and UK Governments is set to rumble on for an unknown time as a court battle looms, Roberts thinks that the Tories have scored an own goal and gifted a boost to the independence cause.
“This is the end of the Union purely because of the actions by Alister Jack and Rishi Sunak,” she said.
Douglas, meanwhile, is bracing herself for the inevitable court challenge.
She said: “I really hope that when this goes to court we win. If we don't it's not just trans rights at stake, it's democracy in the Union itself.
“We can't afford to lose, we really need to win because if we do lose the consequences are too much.”
