Is this why the SNP have dropped their conversion therapy ban?
While ministers are set to work with Westminster on UK-wide plans for a ban - there is no concrete timeline for when a bill could appear in the House of Commons.
Kaukab Stewart, Scotland's Equalities Minister, alluded to this in her statement on Friday, caveating that if the 'collaborative approach' fails, the Scottish Government will publish its own legislation 'in year one of the next parliamentary session'.
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The unspoken part of this being - after the Holyrood 2026 election, and if the SNP win enough seats to form a government to take it forward.
Furious campaigners have accused the Scottish Government of "running scared" of bringing in a full ban.
Plans to publish a stand-alone misogyny bill were also dropped, with Parliamentary Business Minister Jamie Hepburn pointing to the implications of the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.
Issues, arguably, that would have caused contention with the largely anti-transgender UK and Scottish press.
It is the latest move from the Scottish Government under John Swinney away from Nicola Sturgeon's rights-focused policy agenda.
(Image: PA) In January 2024, when the Scottish Government published the consultation responses to a ban on conversion practices, officials held an on-the-record briefing with journalists.
The questions were predictable - would a parent who tried to stop their child from using chest binders be committing a crime?
Would it be an offence for a parent to refuse to allow their child to take puberty blockers (now banned after the Cass Review) if it caused the child psychological stress?
Would a parent who stopped their child from dressing as the opposite gender in public be jailed?
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This was a key talking point for right-wing outlets, like GB News, among others. For Women Scotland (FWS) also made the claim that parents would be criminalised for 'refusing to sign up to the gender ideology cult'.
'It's not just kind of a brief moment of somebody saying that they were upset,' one official said in response.
'It's significant harm.'
There was little, if any regard, LGBT+ Scots who have been, or will be, forced to endure conversion practices that the ban sought to stop.
And, top pollster John Curtice previously told The National that Swinney won't 'want to reignite the fires within his party' ahead of the Holyrood 2026 election.
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