The Scottish government has introduced long-awaited legislation to simplify how an individual changes their legal gender, which proposes dropping the need for medical and psychiatric reports, reducing the waiting time from two years to three months and allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to apply for the first time.
Shona Robison, the social justice secretary, said the reforms were significant not only for transgender people but “in saying who we are as a nation”, as she made a Holyrood statement on Thursday afternoon to launch the bill. It is unusual for a statement to be made introducing legislation in the chamber, reflecting the tensions surrounding the plans, which have been fiercely contested within the governing Scottish National party and across the parliament.
