Sturgeon’s gender bill poses a problem for the Tories

Ministers will come under increased pressure to block Nicola Sturgeon’s gender legislation with the publication of a new Policy Exchange paper today. This examination of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill concludes it will have serious impacts on the rest of the UK.

The Bill removes the safeguards involved in obtaining a gender recognition certificate, the means by which a man can have the law treat him as a woman, and vice versa. It was pushed through the Scottish parliament before Christmas with little time for debate

At present, the law requires an applicant to be 18 or older, to have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a clinician and to prove they have lived in their preferred ‘gender identity’ for at least two years. The Sturgeon bill lowers the minimum age to 16, ousts medical experts from the process and requires only three months of living in the preferred gender plus a further three-month reflection period. 

The principle underlying it is that a person should only need to self-declare their gender, rather than provide medical evidence, for the law to recognise that gender rather than their biological sex.