Explainer-in-brief: The gender reform fight between Westminster and Holyrood
Did you think you would get a month without the culture wars? Think again. This week, Holyrood and Westminster went head to head over Scotland’s gender recognition legislation. The Scottish parliament voted in favour of a bill that would lower the age at which individuals can change gender to sixteen. It would also make it easier to obtain a gender recognition certificate by bringing down waiting times and taking away the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Sturgeon first floated the plan in 2017, and after years of consultation between different parties, the bill was passed by the Scottish parliament with 86 votes in favour and 39 votes against.
The bill has sparked tensions over the past weeks, but came to a head yesterday, when the Scottish legislation was overridden by the UK government in Westminster. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack used Section 35 of the Scotland Act for the first time, an infamous bit of legislation giving the UK government the power to block laws if they could have an impact on the functioning of other nationwide laws.
In this case, the government claimed the Scottish bill would have an adverse impact on the Equality Act, complicating things in areas such as equal pay and single sex spaces. It creates an inflammable intersection of the toxic bits of conversation around Scottish independence and those around trans rights.
Speaking in the Commons today, the Scottish Secretary complained about “those who seek to politicise this decision” – meaning Nicola Sturgeon. He reiterated he didn’t take the decision to use Section 35 lightly, and painted a picture in which he pretty much had no other choice to avoid having two different gender recognition regimes in the UK. His counterpart Ian Murray wasn’t impressed, and attacked the government for not having spent enough time meeting with the Scottish side and debating the issue before enacting Section 35.
Alister Jack’s announcement yesterday irritated many on the other side of the border. Some Scots are angry because they supported the progressive bill; others are simply irritated because they feel, yet again, that Westminster is unnecessarily meddling in their affairs.
Sturgeon is livid. She says blocking the reforms means using transgender people as a political weapon. This is a real risk – and given how much this issue is going to be conflated with independence, it’s shaping up to become a very toxic debate.
Sturgeon now has to choose a course of action: she can amend and reintroduce the bill like Jack has suggested, or she can fight through the constitutional avenue, asking for a judicial review. She’ll probably choose the latter, so she can keep pushing her campaign for independence and make the point, over and over, that Westminster is impinging on Scotland.