A PROTESTER has been ejected from a Holyrood committee meeting examining plans to update gender recognition processes after revealing a t-shirt accusing Nicola Sturgeon of eroding women’s rights.
MSPs on Holyrood’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee are scrutinising Scottish Government plans to streamline the process for trans people to have their gender recognised in law.
The plans, supported by all Holyrood political parties except the Scottish Conservatives, would allow trans people to obtain a gender recognition certificate without needing a psychological examination or a gender dysphoria diagnosis in line with international best practice.
But some have claimed that the plans are putting the rights of women and girls at risk, despite no need for a gender recognition certificate to access single sex spaces and the exemptions set out in the Equalities Act not being altered.
An activist was ejected from the Holyrood committee room as SNP Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison was giving evidence after donning a t-shirt that claimed Nicola Sturgeon is a “destroyer of women’s rights”.
Committee convener Joe Fitzpatrick suspended the meeting for less than a minute when the t-shirt was first revealed by the activist, before the campaigner again revealed the attire and was immediately asked to leave the committee room.
During the committee, Tory MSP Pam Gosal claimed there were concerns over “abuse by bad faith actors to invade women's single sex spaces” and insisted the gender recognition proposals would impact that.
Ms Gosal asked the SNP minister “what the Bill does to address the safety of women and girls”.
She added: “Will you be considering provisions such as blocking those convicted of sex crimes from obtaining a GRC through self-declaration?”
Ms Robison rejected the proposal and stressed that the gender recognition proposals have no impact on single sex spaces.
She said: “There is no body of evidence...that points to bad faith actors trying to use this process in order to abuse women and girls. “The abuse of women and girls comes from predatory men.
"There's no evidence of them using a system of statutory declaration for gender recognition in order to abuse women and girls.”
Ms Robison added: “The Bill does not change the protections set out in the Equalities Act, it does not change the exceptions in that Act that allow single sex service to exclude trans people where that is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, including where those trans people hold a GRC.
“The Bill does not change or remove women’s rights – it does not make changes to how toilets and changing rooms operate, it does not redefine what a man or a woman is and it does not change or expand trans people’s rights.”
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