27 minutes | Monday, 30 January 2023
We gather the facts and consider the implications of the standoff between the Scottish and the UK Government over trans rights.
After 5 years of consultations, the Scottish government set about updating their gender recognition laws and a coalition of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP, The Greens and The Scottish Labour Party recently passed the Gender recognition act. The vote in the Scottish parliament was decisive 88 for, 33 against, 4 abstained, 4 no vote. This was a clear message that these changes had a majority in the Scottish parliament.
In London... this Scottish reform bill was viewed as a big problem.
But the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world, over 30 countries and regions across 4 continents have updated their gender recognition laws over the last decade. In fact when it comes to the rights of trans- non binary people, the UK is now 21st on a list of nations alongside Russia.
After a quick summary of how we got to this position, Graeme Smith talks to Paris Munro about how all this feels from the perspective of someone who is trans-non binary.