Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (Detailed)

LGB Alliance is a Registered Charity (no. 1194148). We advance the interests of lesbians. gay men and bisexuals and stand up for the right to live as same-sex attracted people without discrimination or disadvantage. We ensure that the voices of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are heard in all public and political discussions affecting our lives. Specifically, we: highlight the dual discrimination faced by lesbians; protect children who may grow up to be lesbian, gay or bisexual and we promote free speech on lesbian, gay and bisexual issues.

We believe there is a clear incongruence between awarding a GRC based on self-id only, and allied demands for 'trans' healthcare. There is no other condition for which people may demand medication surgery and a change in legal status based purely on self-diagnosis. We reject the claim that the existing process is 'demeaning and intrusive', particularly as there is no physical examination by, or personal appearance before the panel involved in the process at present. Further we would like to see a tightening of diagnostic criteria, ensuring such a diagnosis is evidence-based and less ideologically driven. In this regard, we urge the Scottish Government to await the outcome of the Cass Review, which although being conducted in NHS England will have direct relevance to this matter.

We would in particular, wish to see factors such as gender non-conformity in relation to dress, behaviour, choice of activities and the like, along with same-sex attraction completely removed as evidence of transgenderism: most LGB people exhibit these growing up. Likewise the requirement that someone 'live in the acquired gender' is undefined and likely a reflection of this outdated reliance on cultural gender stereotypes about what men and women are or should be.

Allowing any individual and particularly a young person to effectively and for almost all purposes change their sex in law after what will in practice be a period of 3 months, is deeply irresponsible. There is a growing community of 'detransitioners', individuals with or without gender dysphoria, who believed themselves to be transgender, who with time and maturity realised that they were not and are not. Crucially for as as the UK's only charity focussed on the rights of same-sex attracted people, we are concerned that so many of these detransitioners are LGB and that their burgeoning sexuality was see as a 'sign' that they were transgender.

We believe that the panel system should be retained and strengthened to take account of the available evidence in this area and of the findings of the ongoing Cass Review. There is no reason why, if Scottish Government decides to, a Scottish panel could not be established along similar lines.

In line with our responses to previous question we believe this Bill is flawed and proposes a process which is deeply irresponsible and serves no-one well. A period of three months reflection is entirely inadequate when people are making a decision that may affect the rest of their lives, and will also other groups , for example women. In addition it is wholly inadequate when accompanied by the threat of prosecution of those who knowingly make a false declaration, particularly in the face of evidence about the growing number of detransitioners, many of who will have been encouraged to believe themselves transgender from a very young age.

In addition, this period is inappropriately short and will not discourage those who will apply for a GRC for nefarious reasons, for example, male prisoners wishing to move to the female estate.

Whether intentional or not, this Bill will accelerate the phenomenon of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria. Reducing the period over which an individual has to wait for a GRC from 2 years to what is effectively 12 weeks, represents another step in the uncritical affirmation of an ideologically driven fiction i.e., that is possible to simply identify as and therefore become the opposite sex.

We are opposed to any reduction in the age at which a GRC can be awarded. Evidence about detransition shows that this growing community identifies relative immaturity and age-related lack of critical thinking skills along with the inability to resist from peer-group pressure as critical factors in their identifying as trans. To remove the slim protection that an age bar of 18 gives to these young people would be deeply irresponsible.

No Comment

No Comment

This provision in the Bill is deeply concerning. There is no explanation of what constitutes a false application or false information. What of the growing number of people who realise OR ADMIT months or years down the line from obtaining a GRC that they are not trans and never were? Are they to be criminalised for believing a fiction perpetuated by powerful agencies and social influences and targeted at them? This is wholly unacceptable. Further organisations like Stonewall insist that anyone who says they are Trans is - how will a decision about false applications/ information be made and by whom?

Any fee associated with this BIll should be commensurate with fees applied to other administrative processes

No Comment

This BiIl is so deeply flawed that it should be scrapped, not amended and a proper evidence-based review of the phenomenon of a 4,000 % increase in referrals of girls to gender identity services initiated. This Bill takes absolutely no account of detransitioners, many of whose bodies have been damaged beyond repair through being caught up in this dangerous ideology and no account of the deeply homophobic and misogynistic nature of that ideology.

LGB Alliance believes that its current form this Bill will result in:

an inability to fully monitor the impact of self-declaration of identity. Scottish Government has already severely restricted the circumstances under which public bodies can collect data based on sex and this Bill will further compound that mistake

individuals finding it increasingly difficult to access same-sex healthcare, delivered by same-sex providers. Scottish Government's response to Johann Lamont's amendment to the Forensic Medical Services Bill suggests that they will privilege gender over sex in most circumstances. We represent the views of thousands of lesbians and bisexual women who are not just opposed to but traumatised by the idea and practice of of males giving intimate or personal care to them and to their female partners and relatives.

added pressure on services, sports - and individuals - to include males in female spaces to the detriment of women and to lesbians in particular. Stonewall has infamously said that lesbians who would not consider dating a transwoman are sexual racists; the national leaders of Rape Crisis and Women's Aid (organisations dependent on Government funding) in direct opposition to what many of their affiliated local organisations want, insist that transwomen are women and are to be included in their services on that basis without exception.

the emboldenment of organisations (many funded by Scottish Government) who already distort the law in relation to the legal status and non-exclusion of men from women's services, spaces and sports. The Government has been at best, lukewarm in encouraging organisations applying for funding to apply the single sex exceptions permissable under the 2010 Equality Act, although it requires applicants to say how they will be trans-inclusive.

further alienate women from the processes of state as they see the complete disregard their concerns are being held in. This Bill represents a denial of the concerns of Lesbian/Bisexual and other women for their well-being and for the safety and well-being of others, including many of those who will apply for a GRC. It is simply inconceivable that a government lead by someone who consistently states that there is no clash between the rights of women and trans people, in the face of all the evidence of harm presented to it, will ever act to protect the rights of lesbians/bisexual and other women. We want the wider body politic to make sure it does.