Dangerous Territory

I never learn about social media. Or rather, I do learn, but after a while I forget and get a sharp reminder.

Like most people in Scotland, I’ve spent a lot of time recently mulling over the issue of Gender Recognition Reform, and discussing it with friends and family. I like to think I listen to the views of others, and not just those I broadly agree with. We’re often most informed by those we disagree with.

So exactly where I stand on the Scottish Government’s proposed Gender Recognition Reform Bill has shifted back and forwards over the last year or so. That’s nothing, though, to the amount of time spent on the issue by healthcare officials and civil servants, who we understand have been wrestling with Gender Self-Recognition for a decade behind the scenes.

If you’re on a different planet, or are perhaps reading this on another continent, here’s the story so far. The situation for trans men and women is currently a nightmare, made worse by the demands of modern living and the never-ending need to complete online forms in which, amongst other things, you’re asked what your gender is. As a result, a small but significant number of people are denied the chance of education or fair employment, and the delay can be many years.

I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to be a woman living in a man’s body or vice versa. What I can say, though, is that, unresolved, it’s a mental health issue and we as a society have a duty to make things easier. So the Scottish Government’s Gender Reform Bill proposed that individuals in such a situation should be able to “self-identify” after a period of three months’ living as a woman/man. For people aged 16-18, the period would be six months. This legislation actually passed the Scottish Parliament by a very large majority, enjoying wide cross-party support.

But in the meantime, brown stuff was hitting the fan. Women across Scotland (supported by many men) began to protest that their “safe spaces” – female toilets, changing rooms, shower areas and so on – would perhaps be threatened by predatory men who self-identified as women. They garnered influential, and some fairly vicious support: J.K.Rowling and others. The waters were further muddied by the attempts of a couple of convicted male rapists to change their gender and therefore serve their time in a female prison.

So the UK Government used a “Section 35”, a fairly obscure power under the Scotland Act – the law that set up the Scottish Parliament all of 25 years ago – to block the Gender Reform Bill. Make no mistake about it: there was malicious intent from the Conservative Government there, led by Alister Jack, a Tory Secretary of State of Scotland who owes his position to the fact that he was the only MP still standing after one of the many routs of his party north of the Border. Jack spearheaded Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign; that tells you everything about the man.

The Scottish Government challenged the Section 35 in the courts, but they lost. I don’t really disagree with the legal judgement overall, because the power’s there, and that’s the end of it. But there were aspects of judge Lady Haldane’s decision that I couldn’t fathom. The case centred on whether the Scottish Parliament was within its rights to make such a law against the wishes of Westminster, but I felt Lady Haldane strayed too far into discussing the merits of the bill per se. That wasn’t her job.

The case crystallises an issue that’s been rumbling for years under the last 13 years of Conservative Government: they’d like to take back powers from the Scottish Parliament. Westminster Tory rule has demonstrated that our unwritten constitution no longer protects the institutions of state as it should. In the past, the fact that a Section 35 had never been used would of itself have been evidence of constitutional custom and practice. We’ve seen plenty of examples of Tory ministers breaking the Ministerial Code but failing to resign or be sacked. Rishi Sunak is a dead man walking politically but he refuses to threaten to engineer a General Election – the surest way to bring his party to heel. We need a written constitution, although Donald Trump in the USA has shown that even that doesn’t always rein in the forces of evil.

I don’t think the Scottish Government will appeal. The best grounds would be to tell the truth: Alister Jack did what he did with a political motive. (He could just as easily have engaged with Holyrood to find an acceptable way forward, but chose to fight the Scottish Parliament instead.) However, the Scottish Government chose to take a higher ground and didn’t stoop to personal issues. I think that’s as well.

The reality is that, whatever its rights and wrongs, the bill’s too decisive anyway. Opposition has become a powerfully feminist issue, supported by some conservative fundamental religious groups. It’s difficult to describe this as anything other ‘transphobia’, because that’s exactly what it is – a fear of transsexuals – but genuine fears shouldn’t simply be dismissed as worthless.

Perhaps the age at which people can change gender should be 18, not 16. Perhaps there need to be some extra safeguards. But it’s worth bearing in mind that those “transgender” sex offenders I mentioned earlier are giving the present law the runaround, legislation that applies throughout the UK. Sex offenders are notoriously devious; they’ll find a way to do whatever they want.

Naturally, Alister Jack welcomed yesterday’s court judgement, but then he disgraced himself by gloating, and he couldn’t resist making anti-SNP political capital – even although the bill had all-party support. The good news is that Jack will be erased from political history within a year, and I’d suggest that the Scottish Parliament tries again with a new Westminster regime after 2025.

So… social media? Last night, I posted my dismay at Alister Jack’s gloating on Twitter (it’s still Twitter as far as I’m concerned), only to find myself being targeted by a group of ill-informed women who hadn’t bothered to read the judgement properly. These keyboard bullies are always anonymous, of course, with daft names like “MaskedAvenger” or “DinnaeMessWiMe”, and they hunt in packs: they converse with each other because they’ve nothing better to do.

This lot? A little bit of research revealed that they’re all diehard Tories who live in the south coast of England and are no more likely to be affected by the Scottish Gender Reform Bill than by the planet Mars. They’re just poor sad souls, and I’m glad I’m not like them. But why, oh why, did I ever reply? I spent the rest of the evening blocking and muting them all. I won’t make the mistake again… or at least not for a while.