A former SNP MSP has warned Nicola Sturgeon must accept “personal responsibility for her personal passion” after driving through laws making it easier to change gender.
In bruising criticism, Joan McAlpine said the first minister has risked the safety of women and the independence cause by making the legislation a flagship issue for her government.
Weeks after the legislation was pushed through just before Christmas, double rapist Isla Bryson, who claimed to have changed gender while awaiting trial, was initially sent to a women’s prison for assessment prompting a wave of concern.
Opponents of the gender reforms said the case confirmed the risks of making it easier for Scots to change gender before building effective safeguards around single-sex spaces. McAlpine, writing in The Post today, says the first minister is wrong to challenge the UK Government’s decision to block the bill because most Scots also oppose it, adding: “Not since Bonnie Prince Charlie sacrificed his Highlanders at Culloden has a Scottish battleground been so ill-chosen.
“This ideology is a personal passion of the first minister so now she must answer for any harm done – to women, obviously, but also to her party and the cause of independence.” Ministers say there are currently no trans prisoners in female units with convictions for violence against women while all trans prisoners trying to switch jails are subject to robust risk assessments before a decision is taken.
But former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill has described the Scottish Prison Service’s individual risk assessments of trans inmates as a “sideshow”. The MP and Alba party deputy leader said: “Risk assessment is part of prison life and for every prisoner in some form. What is required is a clear law or rule that physically able-bodied males will not be put in female prisons.”
The Scottish Prison Service said prisoners were assigned jails that “best suit their needs and level of risk” while the Scottish Government said: “The bill – which was passed by an overwhelming majority of the Scottish Parliament and by members of all parties – does not introduce any new rights for trans people, nor does it conflict with our support for women’s rights.”
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