Welcome to the Terf wars. There’s just two days ago until the deadline when Rishi Sunak has to decide whether or not to block Nicola Sturgeon’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill. The legislation was passed last month by a majority at Holyrood of 86 to 39 votes and made it easier for people as young as 16 to change gender without seeing a doctor. However under Section 35 of the Scotland Act, UK ministers can stop a bill getting royal assent if they think it would alter laws reserved to Westminster – in this case equalities law and, specifically, the Equality Act. Sunak must decide by Wednesday whether to use this mechanism to stop the legislation or accept it, amid fears that it could lead to ‘gender tourism’ across the border.
Given the current constitutional impasse up in Scotland, Mr S thought he’d ask the public in England and Wales what they think of all of this.
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