When will Humza Yousaf see sense on his doomed gender bill?

Just when you thought it was safe to go to back in the gender-neutral loo, back comes the row about the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. It lands in Scotland’s highest court today, the Court of Session. Lady Haldane will hear three days of argument on the UK government’s unprecedented veto under the Section 35 of the Scotland Act. 

The GRR Bill, passed by the Scottish parliament in December after an acrimonious late-night debate, could allow people as young as 16 to change legal sex without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. It is opposed by around two thirds of Scottish voters. But the Scottish government is determined to see it on the statute book.

Those who don’t actually live in Scotland might wonder quite what this has to do with them. The Bill was within the powers of the Scottish parliament – even the UK government accepts that, as the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain, will argue today.