Sturgeon tells of fresh abuse in ‘toxic' trans rights debate
She spoke about the miscarriage she had in 2010 as part of events and interviews in recent days to publicise her memoir, Frankly.
She says in the book that she 'should have hit the pause button' on controversial legislation to allow trans people to self-identify and gain legal recognition in their preferred gender without a lengthy medical process.
Despite fierce opposition from some women's rights campaigners who feared this would give biological males access to female spaces, the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed by Holyrood – though it has never been enacted after being blocked by Westminster.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Thursday, Ms Sturgeon said the debate was 'toxic on both sides'.
Highlighting comments made on social media this week, she said: 'There are people who call themselves feminists, standing up for women's rights, saying things about me such as when I described my miscarriage experience the other day 'I haven't laughed as much in years', accusing me of making it up, people saying they hope I am raped in a toilet.'
She accepted that 'in all of the tone and tenor of this I am not saying I was blameless at all', saying she 'desperately' wished she had been able to 'find a more collegiate way forward' on the controversial issue.
She described transphobia as 'the soft underbelly of other prejudice'.
Ms Sturgeon insisted not all opponents of gender reform are either transphobic or homophobic, but the issue of trans rights 'has been hijacked and weaponised by people that are transphobic and homophobic'.
She said she was 'worried' that if she paused the gender reforms at Holyrood, this would have seen her 'give in to that'.
However she said: 'I might have been wrong, and I probably was wrong about that.'
Ms Sturgeon also made clear her support for transgender rights, saying: 'To my dying day… I will just never accept that there is an irreconcilable tension between women's rights and trans rights.
'I don't believe you have to choose between being a feminist and standing up for one of the most stigmatised minorities in our society.
'Who has threatened women for all the years I have been alive – abusive men have threatened women.
'You get bad people in every group in society but you don't tar the whole group with the bad people, and that I really regret appears to be what some are trying to do with trans people, to take some people and say that is representative of the whole trans community.
'My life might be easier if I just gave in on this issue and said 'yeah, I got it wrong' and we should never try to make life better for the trans community.
'But I will never, to make my own life easier, betray a stigmatized minority, because that is not why I came into politics and it is never what I will do in politics.'
She later confirmed she had not contacted the police about the abusive comments.
She told journalists: 'I think in terms of online abuse, sometimes we just have to kind of all take a step back and stop doing it, rather than think that the recourse is always to go to the police.'
But she also said she feared the abuse politicians receive could 'drive out so many good people' from politics, with the former first minister warning this 'will be a disaster for democracy'.
While she said there were now more women in senior positions, she added: 'In many, many ways it is more difficult for women now in politics because of the toxicity and social media.
'I don't have the magic answer to that but I do know that unless we get to grips with it and address it better, we're going to drive out so many good people, women and men, from politics and that will be a disaster for democracy.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Nicola Sturgeon: Gender opponents said they wanted me ‘raped in toilet'
Nicola Sturgeon has said opponents of her self-ID gender policy have laughed at her miscarriage and said they want her to be 'raped in a toilet' on social media. The former first minister accused self-professed feminists of having 'vilified' her this week, as she released her memoir, despite them claiming to stand up for women's rights. She was forced to deny claims she was responsible for a free speech row over whether critics of her gender policy were being censored, saying she 'does not believe' in cancel culture. The row erupted after an Edinburgh Fringe arts venue indicated that Kate Forbes, the deputy first minister, would not be invited to speak at future events because of her views on trans rights. Summerhall Arts issued an apology to performers for its 'oversight' in allowing Ms Forbes, a devout Christian, to be interviewed on stage last week. Several artists at the venue are performing shows with gay or transgender themes, and some set up a 'safe room' because they claimed to have been 'terrified' while the 5ft 2in-tall politician was in the building, the Daily Mail reported. It also emerged that the National Library of Scotland (NLS) had removed a gender-critical book from an exhibition after staff complained. The library removed The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, a collection of essays by feminists, including JK Rowling, about their fight against Ms Sturgeon's gender self-ID laws. The book was selected to be included in an exhibition celebrating the library's centenary but was removed following complaints that it was 'hate speech'. However, it was still available to read in the library. Stephen Kerr, a Scottish Tory MSP, wrote to Angus Robertson, the Scottish culture secretary, arguing that public bodies that fail to protect freedom of speech should have their funding withheld. In his letter, Mr Kerr asked Mr Robertson to 'seek full and transparent explanations' from Summerhall Arts and NLS about their conduct and to make a 'clear public statement ... that freedom of speech and expression are non-negotiable where public funding is concerned.' He urged the culture secretary to 'require that future funding arrangements include explicit, enforceable commitments to uphold these freedoms in practice, and that breaches will have consequences'. Ms Sturgeon's controversial Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill would have allowed Scots to change legal gender by simply signing a declaration, with no medical diagnosis. The legislation was passed at Holyrood, with Ms Sturgeon arguing that some of its opponents were transphobic, 'deeply misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well'. However, it was vetoed by the UK Government over concerns it undermined women's safe spaces. 'Toxic' trans debate In a sold-out interview with broadcaster Kirsty Wark at Edinburgh Book Festival, Ms Sturgeon described the debate around trans issues as 'toxic on both sides'. Highlighting comments made on social media this week, she said: 'There are people who call themselves feminists, standing up for women's rights, saying things about me such as when I described my miscarriage experience the other day 'I haven't laughed as much in years', accusing me of making it up, people saying they hope I am raped in a toilet.' The former SNP leader has recounted the miscarriage she had aged 40 in 2010 as part of events and interviews to publicise her memoir in recent days. She said she was 'heartbroken' about the loss. In the book, named Frankly, she admitted that she 'should have hit the pause button' on the controversial legislation to allow trans people to self-identify. Reflecting on the row over the policy in her interview with Ms Wark, Ms Sturgeon insisted that not all opponents of gender reform are either transphobic or homophobic, but claimed the issue of trans rights 'has been hijacked and weaponised by people that are transphobic and homophobic'. She said she was 'worried' that if she paused the gender reforms at Holyrood, this would have seen her 'give in to that', but admitted that that 'might have been wrong'. 'I don't believe in cancel culture' Asked if her change of heart on the bill merited an apology to the people who say they were 'vilified' for wanting it paused, Ms Sturgeon said: 'People on both sides of this debate are vilified. 'I've been vilified and received some awful abuse, nothing like the abuse trans people are getting right now.' Pressed later for her response to the free speech rows, Ms Sturgeon said: 'I don't believe in cancel culture and I don't agree with that.' She also refused to take responsibility for the decision made by Summerhall Arts. The Fringe venue was awarded £608,302 of public money from Scottish Government quango Creative Scotland in January. In his letter to the culture secretary, Mr Kerr asked for an audit to be conducted to ascertain how much public money had been given to organisations that have restricted freedom of expression. Mr Robertson told the Herald that the Scottish Government was fully committed to freedom of speech in the arts but added: 'For very good reasons, funding to our major cultural and festival events takes place at arm's length.' The Summerhall venue said: 'This event was booked as a series of long-form interviews prior to the guest list being confirmed. 'Summerhall Arts' primary concern is the safety and wellbeing of the artists and performers we work with, and going forward we will be developing robust, proactive inclusion and wellbeing policies that would prevent this oversight in our bookings process happening again.'
Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Watch: JD Vance four-putts at Trump Turnberry
JD Vance's UK holiday has been nothing if not eventful, but it took an embarrassing turn on the golf course with an excruciating four-putt. On his trip to Britain the US vice-president as gone fishing with David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, and have formal discussions on fraught issues such as Ukraine and free speech. He then went to the Cotswolds, where he failed to ingratiate himself with the locals, who complained that his sizeable entourage – a 19-vehicle motorcade accompanied by a helicopter – left them 'completely sealed off from the outside world'. But having travelled to Scotland to play Trump Turnberry – as the name suggests, his boss's course – Mr Vance might well have wished he was sealed off from the rest of the planet as a painful four-putt was caught on camera.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
JK Rowling blasts Sturgeon memoirs as a 'shameless denial of reality and hard facts' in scathing review
They have long been locked in a bitter war of words over the gender debate. Now author JK Rowling has penned a scathing review of Nicola Sturgeon 's hotly anticipated memoirs on the day it was officially launched. The Harry Potter author, who famously wore a t-shirt labelling the former first minister a 'destroyer of women's rights', posted the expletive-riddled assessment of 'Frankly' on her website last night. Ms Rowling tore into the former First Minister's 'stubborn' attachment to her controversial gender reform legislation, her inability to face up to her failures in office and 'Trumpian' accounts of political events. The women's right campaigner wrote: 'She remains stubbornly wedded to her belief that it is possible to let some men into women's spaces on the men's say so, without letting any man who fancies it come inside. 'She denies there are any risks to a policy of gender self-identification. She can't imagine any male predator capitalising on such policies, in spite of the fact that it has, demonstrably, happened many times. 'She is flat out Trumpian in her shameless denial of reality and hard facts.' 'While Sturgeon is focused on making sure no hurty sexist words penetrate hers, she's entirely dismissive of the harms done in actual physical spaces, where she expected nurse Sandie Peggie to deal with a heavy menstrual flood in front of a cosplaying man, and vulnerable female prisoners to accept being incarcerated with trans-identified male sex offenders. 'The First Minister, with her police protection, her carefully monitored official residence and her chauffeured car just couldn't see what these bigots were making a fuss about.' The best-selling author said it was only when the double rapist Isla Bryson burst into the news that the FM was lost of words. Ms Rowling said: 'The First Minister, whose composure and articulacy under fire had, for years, been her most potent political asset, made herself look – and forgive me for employing a PR term here – a complete f******. 'Of course, the blame for her looking like a complete f****** lies with others. Nobody had warned her about Bryson, you see.' 'If you're prepared to accept the foundational falsehood that some men are women, you'll inevitably find yourself panicking like a pheasant caught in headlights one day.' Ms Rowling also addressed claims Sturgeon made in her book about the vile abuse the politician had received. The best-selling author said: 'Eleven years ago, when she and I found ourselves on opposite sides of a different public debate, I didn't hold her accountable for all the threats I received from nationalists, nor for the porn her supporters circulated, with my face pasted onto a naked actress's body. 'As the gender wars have raged, I have not accused her of emboldening the kind of 'activist' whose threats against me have twice necessitated police action.' 'Notwithstanding all the ruminating on sexism and misogyny Sturgeon does in Frankly, always as it affects her personally, she is unshakeable in her belief that if men put on dresses and call themselves women they can only be doing so with innocent motives. 'Sturgeon hasn't been remotely humbled by the Supreme Court ruling that proved her government was forcing a misinterpretation of the UK-wide Equality Act on Scotland, one that robbed women of many single sex spaces and of their very existence as a definable class with rights protected in law.' And Ms Rowling, who reveals that her doctor husband once ran a methadone clinic for drug addicts, hit out at what the ex FM fails to even mention in the memoir. Ms Rowling said: 'The mysteriously vanished government WhatsApp messages from the pandemic, the tanking educational outcomes, the CalMac Ferry disaster, the disappearance of a half a million pounds of her own supporters' money that was supposedly ringfenced for a new independence referendum: you'll search in vain for candid accounts of these in Frankly; indeed, most aren't mentioned at all. 'Perhaps the most disgraceful omission – and I'll admit to a personal interest here, because I'm married to a doctor who used to run a methadone clinic, so saw the national scandal up close – is the fact that Scotland continues to lead the whole of Europe in drug deaths.' And she compares the MSP to Bella Swan in the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer. Ms Rowling wrote: 'The heroine of Twilight, a shy, awkward, bookish girl, moves to a small, rainswept town called Forks to live with her single father. 'In doing so, she unknowingly takes her first step towards a staggeringly unlikely future nobody could have predicted. 'The heroine of Frankly is also a shy, awkward, bookish girl who lives in a small, rainswept town. 'About to turn seventeen, she approaches a bungalow in Dreghorn, knocks on the door of the SNP candidate for her constituency, and asks if she can help with canvassing.' 'Nicola Sturgeon, unlike the eventually undead Bella Swan, isn't a Good Vampire at all. She's caused real, lasting harm by presiding over and encouraging a culture in which women have been silenced, shamed, persecuted and placed in situations that are degrading and unsafe, all for not subscribing to her own luxury beliefs.'
