Tuesday, 17 January 2023

The Gender Recognition Act

Interesting times have come about.  Scotland has passed a Gender Recognition Act and our government may veto it.  I think that this is the wrong course of action.

While I have concerns about this, notably that it could mean an end to single sex schools (i.e transwomen would be allowed in a girls school as A level students), my main concern about the GRA is if it would allow people like the sex offender, Katie Dolatowski the legal right to stay in a women's refuge. Also I have concerns with people like the rapist, Karen White being allowed to be in a female prison.  I know that some consider me transphobic to have these concerns, but so be it.

Defenders of the bill state that such issues are not going to arise, those who are against it state otherwise.  I am not a legal expert so cannot really understand the bill to see what it says and I rely on others.  It appears that I will only find out what will be allowed or not when it is allowed, or not, and that means the law should pass.

I do think that it is silly to make people who are non-binary to have to wait ages for a medical diagnosis for the ability to have such a certificate.

But I should not be surprised considering that the government who have rightly banned conversion therapy for people who are not straight, have refused to ban conversion therapy for those who are non-binary.  

In summary, conversion therapy should be banned, and rather than forcing a veto on the Scottish GRA, an act of Parliament could be passed to make it only legal in Scotland if the concerns about it are valid.