Image: Morning Star
All of Scotland’s MSM including BBC Scotland are making the vote on the proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, bad news for the SNP with headlines like:
How bad is the gender reform rebellion for the SNP?
As always with these reports, there’s another way of looking and reporting.
Only one of the big three parties was not split on this, Labour. Two Cons voted with the SNP.
All of Labour’s MSPs backed the changes.
This will no doubt be good news for Labour in terms of support from the Trans community but there are very few of them (c24 000) compared to women (c 2 million) voters, strongly aligned with the achievements of the women’s movements from the 1970s until the present and who, rightly or wrongly, feel threatened by this Act.
More than half of Labour’s votes tend to come from women.
Labour Women are clear and firmly opposed:
There are major problems in prison populations already, in Scotland, the rest of the UK and in other countries. Possession of a GRC enables a male-born person, even one convicted of a sexual offence, declaring a female ‘gender’, being housed in women’s prisons. Even before any law change in Scotland, self-declaration (with no GRC) is too often regarded as adequate reason to send a male offender to a women’s prison, and inevitable difficulties have arisen. Large numbers of people being able to obtain a self-declared GRC will make it nigh-on impossible to row back from what are realised to be unintended consequence, despite it being clear that the damage to the vulnerable women in women’s prisons is considerable.
https://labourwomensdeclaration.org.uk/lwd-submission-to-gender-recognition-reform-scotland-bill/
Scotland’s MSM will no doubt attempt to shield Scottish Labour from accusations of betraying women’s rights but social media will see it fully exposed in time.
Talking-up Scotland 
As predicted the MSM and especially BBC Scotland are giving the resignation of a minister, the seven votes against by SNP MSPs plus two abstentions on the ‘controversial’ (sic) issue of gender recognition reform heavy emphasis. The response letter by the FM to the resigning minister is described everywhere as ‘icy’ – how does such unanimity emerge. There is scant mention of the fact that the bill was passed by 88 votes to 33, with 4 abstentions. including the Presiding Officer this means that 126 out of 129 MSPs expressed a view. Of the three MSPs who did not participate, one is on maternity leave. All Labour, Green and LibDem MSPs voted in favour as did 2 Conservative MSPs. It seems to me that the ‘controversial’ bill has very significant support covering ALL parties at Holyrood.
Like previous issues relating to gay rights and abortion, for example, gender recognition is one of the subjects which traditionally have been ‘conscience’ issues as John Mason MSP pointed out. Whipping is not usually imposed, so the SNP decision on this seems strange, given that amongst its MSPs there was very large support.
Scotland is not the first country to have acted in such a way with regard to trans rights. The evidence from those countries is that women’s rights have not been eroded.
PS Drivetime, with Fiona “‘Hello, Douglas’, in a friendly tone” Stalker trumpeted ‘Covid cases in Scotland continue to rise. We speak to Jason Leitch.’. Of course, no context was given.
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Why do the media ignore the World Health Organisation’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems when discussing the issue?
http://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases
‘For more than a century, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) has been the basis for comparable statistics on causes of mortality and morbidity between places and over time. Originating in the 19th century, the latest version of the ICD, ICD-11, was adopted by the 72nd World Health Assembly in 2019 and came into effect on 1st January 2022.’
The latest version..
http://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions/gender-incongruence-and-transgender-health-in-the-icd
‘ ICD-11 and Gender Incongruence
The 11th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11). The newly revised ICD-11 codes includes new changes to reflect modern understanding of sexual health and gender identity.’
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