CATRIONA Stewart's column on the Jessica/Jonathan Yaniv waxing case was excellent ("Bikini wax dispute raises trans issues SNP can’t ignore", The Herald, May 26). When I invited the Canadian feminist, Meghan Murphy, to speak in the Scottish Parliament in May, I was attacked for "giving a platform to a transphobe who was banned from Twitter". Meghan's ban was for "misgendering" and exposing the already notorious Yaniv. As Ms Stewart demonstrated, in Canada a person with a penis believes they can demand female beauticians handle male genitalia, even if they offer women-only services. Yaniv is also subject to serious allegations about online interactions with young girls and a bizarre obsession with menstruation. But despite all this, we are told Yaniv must be treated as a woman.

Trans lobbyists here want us to emulate Canada as an example of "international best practice". These same campaigners say the self-identification of sex must be accepted "without exception" and want all medical diagnosis and gatekeeping removed from the current process of changing legal sex. This is what the campaign to reform the Gender Recognition Act is about. It will mean trans becomes undefinable because anyone can become trans. Instead of the act protecting a small number of people (mainly transexuals), it will broaden out to allow any man to "become a woman" based on a subjective feeling which is never tested, measured nor defined.

Most people still don't realise that around 80 per cent of those identifying as transwomen retain male genitalia. They have lived as men, well into middle age. Some may have offended against women. But to question their womanhood is, we are told, "transphobic" or "anti-trans". Religious denominations do not impose their beliefs on our secular society and neither should those pushing a ideology that denies the existence of biological sex. Scotland must learn lessons from Canada, so I thank Ms Stewart and The Herald for highlighting them.

Joan McAlpine MSP, The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh.