The SNP, trans rights and the war on women

For a while, it seemed as though Scotland was taking the lead on challenging the new gender orthodoxy. Despite all the odds (and taxpayer funding) being on the other side, gender-critical feminist campaigners secured a last-minute pause in the Scottish government’s plans to banish medical experts from the gender recognition process and shift to self-identification. 

Then came Humza Yousaf’s hate crime bill, with its new offence of ‘stirring up hatred’ against a litany of protected characteristics, among them ‘transgender identity’. Scotland fell behind further when UK equalities minister Liz Truss ditched plans for trans self-ID in England and schools were issued thorough guidance on the kinds of groups and materials teachers may rely on when instructing about sex and relationships. The Conservative government hasn’t been infiltrated by Julie Bindel and the Cabinet handbook replaced with a dog-eared copy of The Transsexual Empire; feminists have simply leveraged what remains of Tory scepticism to their advantage.