Latest news with #AkuaReindorfKC
Telegraph
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
SNP ministers will not cut ties with Stonewall after trans ruling
SNP ministers have refused to cut ties with the charity Stonewall after the Supreme Court's transgender ruling. Stonewall has claimed that last month's judgment from the UK's highest court – that a trans woman is not legally a woman – is 'not law as yet'. The charity runs a scheme that encourages access for trans women to female spaces. However, Stonewall has suggested that members of its scheme should wait for statutory guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) before making any changes to policies, a position also adopted by the Scottish Government, the losing party in the ruling. Their position flies in the face of warnings that members of Stonewall's workplace inclusion scheme are potentially breaking the law if trans women are allowed into female facilities. Akua Reindorf KC, an EHRC commissioner, has clarified that the 88-page ruling 'is the law' and has 'immediate effect'. Tess White, the equalities spokesman for the Scottish Tories, said: 'It is shocking that SNP ministers remain in thrall to this organisation who are peddling misinformation about a ruling from the highest court in the land.' The Scottish Government said it remains 'committed' to supporting LGBTQI+ people, which includes funding Stonewall 'to advance equality for this group'. The charity has been paid about £400,000 of public money since 2022 to run a workplace inclusion programme in Scotland that champions diversity. It has previously pushed companies to adopt gender-neutral language, encouraging organisations to use the term 'parent who has given birth' in place of 'mother' on forms to boost their ranking on its index of employers. 'Manifestly not lawful' For Women Scotland (FWS), the feminist campaign group that raised the legal challenge against the Scottish Government's support for gender self-identification, said it hoped that, going forward, 'we might be able to work more productively with the Scottish Government'. Susan Smith, from FWS, said: 'Stonewall's workplace programme encourages businesses and public bodies to adopt policies which are manifestly not lawful. 'These need to be rooted out, not further cemented – unless, of course, the government is looking to be taken to court again. 'We would urge John Swinney to undertake a review of funding directed to Stonewall and other organisations which have spread misinformation about the ruling. 'Public money should never line the pockets of those seeking to undermine equality law and women's human rights.' Stonewall said it adhered to the Equality Act and EHRC statutory guidance, adding: 'We, along with many others, are highlighting the importance of considering [the ruling's] implications. 'The EHRC has announced a consultation, and there will then be a parliamentary process before any updated statutory guidance is published.' The charity added that its workplace inclusion programmes, which have been running for more than 20 years, were the 'gold standard for employers that want to embed equality for LGBTQ+ people in the workplace'. However, government departments in Whitehall, including the Home Office and Treasury, have left the scheme after a string of controversies over gender ideology. North of the border, several organisations, including the BBC, the Scottish Parliament and Police Scotland, have also withdrawn from Stonewall's diversity champions membership scheme. Ms White said various organisations had 'shown common sense' by withdrawing from Stonewall's programme in recent years, adding that the Scottish Government should cut ties with the charity 'rather than strengthening' them. 'Scots will be questioning why SNP ministers are still so wedded to supporting this organisation which has been mired in controversy and is disconnected from the views of mainstream Scotland on the SNP's obsession with gender self-ID.' A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: 'The first minister has been clear that the Scottish Government accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court. 'We are committed to supporting LGBTQI+ people, including through funding for Stonewall to advance equality for this group. This is particularly important when we are seeing a rise in attacks against the LGBTQI+ community.'
Scotsman
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Readers' letters: Misuse of language will lead to 'bigotry fatigue'
A reader suggests campaigners should not be so quick to resort to extreme language Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... I briefly suspended my 'suspicion of a commision' to internally applaud Ms Akua Reindorf KC, a commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Comission, for labelling Maggie Chapman MSP et al's perpetual use of the concept of 'bigotry' to to characterise any dissenters from their ideology as 'disgraceful'. In this case the UK Supreme Court decision on biological sex as it applies to the Equality Act became the latest issue to fulfill the Green Party criteria to send forth a salvo of hyperbolic 'hate' speech. I am familiar with the term 'bigot' in a Scottish context as I was culturally conditioned in late-sixties early-seventies sectarian Glasgow where the term was used to describe dangerous, abusive, violent and at times murderous people, usually by people with similar tendencies similarly traumatised by extreme religious ideology. The women that took the Scottish Government to court do not exhibit in any way these identifiers of 'bigotry'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad When will Chapman and Co realise that when they use extreme language to play to the ire of already angry people they only increase the hate speech burden in society at large. They are in addition 'blunting' superlatives that will eventually leave us no recourse in language to describe the truly awful aspects of of our dual human nature. Their misuse of language in this way serves the cause of transgender and gender dysphoric brothers and citizens not one jot. Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman has been criticised for accusing the Supreme Court of 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred' (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty) Let us hope that a breath of new and fresh air in the leadership of the Green movement will once more endear it to the Scottish people as the environmental 'warriors' we once revered and whose efforts are needed as ever before. Andrew Docherty, Selkirk, Scottish Borders Equality Act You report on the row surrounding Maggie Chapman MSP's comments about the UK Supreme Court judgment on the meaning of 'sex' in the Equality Act. The consequences of that judgment will depend largely on the interpretation placed on it by the regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and then by service providers and employers. There is much debate about what that interpretation should correctly be. A hardline interpretation is that trans people must in future always be excluded from any single-sex space, for example a toilet, that matches their lived and presenting gender. That would place people at risk – for example a trans woman forced to use the men's toilet – and would fundamentally undermine the ability of trans people to just get on with their lives without being publicly outed. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Such a hardline interpretation is likely to result in an increase in some forms of 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred' – the words Maggie Chapman used. That does not mean, of course, that the Supreme Court justices intended that outcome. Their task was to seek to interpret the words that the UK Parliament wrote into the statute, and to try to make somewhat unclear legislation consistent and coherent. That the UK Parliament's intention in passing the legislation is documented as having been the opposite of the court's interpretation of it, indicates that the Equality Act should have been more clearly drafted, and therefore now needs amended. It remains to be seen what the eventual implications of the court's judgment will be for trans people's ability to continue to live their lives in privacy and peace, as they have done for decades. But thanks to everyone who is speaking up for them being able to do that. Tim Hopkins, Edinburgh Far-left danger John Swinney seems obsessed with the far right yet he continues to let his party give succour to what is increasingly a far-left party, the Scottish Greens. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Maggie Chapman's outburst over the transgender issue cannot just be swept under the carpet as it comes after a litany of Green party mistakes such as the bottle deposit and home heating schemes. Humza Yousaf tried to ditch the Greens but John Swinney appears to be taking the line of 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. The Greens are doing the SNP no favours. It is time for John Swinney to come off the fence, Nicola Sturgeon to make a statement over the Supreme Court judgement and Kate Forbes to be somewhat more vocal on issues she finds controversial. Gerald Edwards, Glasgow Threat is real It is far too easy to belittle the anti-far-right summit, as Russell Findlay has done (Murdo Fraser, 23 April), dismissing it all too glibly as a 'talking shop'. The threat posed by the far right is all too real on a continental and even a world scale. We are witnessing the dire damage that the far-right Trump presidency is inflicting on America. Trump's notorious unelected right-hand man, Elon Musk, openly supports the AfD in Germany, among other far-right parties. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad John Swinney's call for an anti-far-right summit is a timely reminder of the threat Nigel Farage's Reform UK poses closer to home in Scotland. While Farage himself is hugely unpopular here, he has designs on 10 Downing Street at the next general election. The hope is that John Swinney's 'talking shop' results in much-needed action. Ian Petrie, Edinburgh The bells, the bells! Label me pedantic if you like, but someone has to call out the ludicrously over-the-top bell ringing carried out by the drivers of Edinburgh trams. Bells are rung every stop and start at platforms or lights, even restarting behind a vehicle at the latter, whilst multiple bell ringing occurs frequently traversing pedestrian-controlled crossings and many other places besides when there seems nothing other than a clear line ahead. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad During ten minutes at Haymarket I counted 20 bells rung by just four trams so one can imagine what this means across the network on a typical day; many thousands. I spent almost three weeks in Vienna recently and recall hearing a tram bell once! I have no doubt drivers are working to instruction so my challenge to Edinburgh Trams is to explain why this unnecessary behaviour when the same company's buses and traffic of all other types are not required to or feel the need to blow horns likewise. Warnings given judiciously count, those used over-indulgently do not. Mike Dunsmore, Edinburgh Perceived wisdom As I was preparing to go to the opticians in Galashiels, I read the letter by Elizabeth Scott, titled 'Wisdom of age?' (21 April). When one lectures on the perceived wisdom of age, it is only that – perceived. Wisdom is granted to individuals by others, in how they see us and how our opinions are received by the great and the good. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In Elizabeth Scott's letter, there is no wisdom, merely the usual SNP drivel about foreign lands (England), nuclear leaks (when was the last one), Scunthorpe v Grangemouth (apart from losing a fortune and the least useful refinery in Europe) and the nonsense of 'being at the mercy of a foreign government'. This is the UK – not South Korea or Taiwan! Sadly in the land of the fluffy 'freedom' movement, nobody addresses the large number of elephants in the room – financially a disaster, a government which has produced the sum total of baby boxes in 21 years, ideologically-driven and denying a Supreme Court judgement and also the best of all in my time observing politics: painting on windows for a photo shoot. I think I will keep my perceived wisdom to myself. David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders Trump's Yalta Anent Doug Morrison's letter (23 April), it was of course Franklin Roosevelt, not Theodore, who was the United States President in the Second World War until his death in April 1945. Nor, to be strictly accurate, did he 'work together' with Churchill to defeat Germany until December 1941 when the USA was itself attacked by Japan. And they trusted each other only up to a point – with Roosevelt mistrusting Churchill on the British Empire and Churchill mistrusting Roosevelt on his wish to accommodate Stalin's own empire-building. Nor is it only President Trump who 'lacks the courage to fully support' Ukraine – President Biden and German Chancellor Schulz were also prepared to give Ukraine only enough to fight back but not enough for the decisive win which many military experts thought was feasible in late 2022/early 2023. However, it does seem that Trump will now emulate the frail and ailing Roosevelt in his caving in to Stalin at Yalta on redrawing Eastern Europe's borders, rather than on his much more robust and decisive actions from December 1941 to 1944. John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife Hole in one Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Martin Dempster (Scotsman, 22 April) correctly points out that the initiative from the St Andrews Links Trust to encourage more Scottish golfers to play the hallowed links is to be commended. The relentless recent commercialisation of the links which in 2023 resulted in a surplus of £11.4 million fuelled by 153,000 visitor rounds has undoubtedly worked to the disadvantage of Scottish golfers. Hopefully this is a sign that the Trust are recognising their responsibilities under the 1974 Act and their obligations under the charities legislations and will now allow them to focus on resident as well as visiting golfers. The St Andrews Resident Golfers Association welcomes this announcement and wish to work with the Trust to the benefit of those who have had the privileged right to play the Old Course for centuries. John Winter, Secretary, St Andrews Resident Golfers Association, St Andrews, Fife Write to The Scotsman Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
Scotsman
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Readers' letters: Misuse of language will lead to 'bigotry fatigue'
A reader suggests campaigners should not be so quick to resort to extreme language Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... I briefly suspended my 'suspicion of a commision' to internally applaud Ms Akua Reindorf KC, a commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Comission, for labelling Maggie Chapman MSP et al's perpetual use of the concept of 'bigotry' to to characterise any dissenters from their ideology as 'disgraceful'. In this case the UK Supreme Court decision on biological sex as it applies to the Equality Act became the latest issue to fulfill the Green Party criteria to send forth a salvo of hyperbolic 'hate' speech. I am familiar with the term 'bigot' in a Scottish context as I was culturally conditioned in late-sixties early-seventies sectarian Glasgow where the term was used to describe dangerous, abusive, violent and at times murderous people, usually by people with similar tendencies similarly traumatised by extreme religious ideology. The women that took the Scottish Government to court do not exhibit in any way these identifiers of 'bigotry'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad When will Chapman and Co realise that when they use extreme language to play to the ire of already angry people they only increase the hate speech burden in society at large. They are in addition 'blunting' superlatives that will eventually leave us no recourse in language to describe the truly awful aspects of of our dual human nature. Their misuse of language in this way serves the cause of transgender and gender dysphoric brothers and citizens not one jot. Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman has been criticised for accusing the Supreme Court of 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred' (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty) Let us hope that a breath of new and fresh air in the leadership of the Green movement will once more endear it to the Scottish people as the environmental 'warriors' we once revered and whose efforts are needed as ever before. Andrew Docherty, Selkirk, Scottish Borders Equality Act You report on the row surrounding Maggie Chapman MSP's comments about the UK Supreme Court judgment on the meaning of 'sex' in the Equality Act. The consequences of that judgment will depend largely on the interpretation placed on it by the regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and then by service providers and employers. There is much debate about what that interpretation should correctly be. A hardline interpretation is that trans people must in future always be excluded from any single-sex space, for example a toilet, that matches their lived and presenting gender. That would place people at risk – for example a trans woman forced to use the men's toilet – and would fundamentally undermine the ability of trans people to just get on with their lives without being publicly outed. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Such a hardline interpretation is likely to result in an increase in some forms of 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred' – the words Maggie Chapman used. That does not mean, of course, that the Supreme Court justices intended that outcome. Their task was to seek to interpret the words that the UK Parliament wrote into the statute, and to try to make somewhat unclear legislation consistent and coherent. That the UK Parliament's intention in passing the legislation is documented as having been the opposite of the court's interpretation of it, indicates that the Equality Act should have been more clearly drafted, and therefore now needs amended. It remains to be seen what the eventual implications of the court's judgment will be for trans people's ability to continue to live their lives in privacy and peace, as they have done for decades. But thanks to everyone who is speaking up for them being able to do that. Tim Hopkins, Edinburgh Far-left danger John Swinney seems obsessed with the far right yet he continues to let his party give succour to what is increasingly a far-left party, the Scottish Greens. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Maggie Chapman's outburst over the transgender issue cannot just be swept under the carpet as it comes after a litany of Green party mistakes such as the bottle deposit and home heating schemes. Humza Yousaf tried to ditch the Greens but John Swinney appears to be taking the line of 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. The Greens are doing the SNP no favours. It is time for John Swinney to come off the fence, Nicola Sturgeon to make a statement over the Supreme Court judgement and Kate Forbes to be somewhat more vocal on issues she finds controversial. Gerald Edwards, Glasgow Threat is real It is far too easy to belittle the anti-far-right summit, as Russell Findlay has done (Murdo Fraser, 23 April), dismissing it all too glibly as a 'talking shop'. The threat posed by the far right is all too real on a continental and even a world scale. We are witnessing the dire damage that the far-right Trump presidency is inflicting on America. Trump's notorious unelected right-hand man, Elon Musk, openly supports the AfD in Germany, among other far-right parties. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad John Swinney's call for an anti-far-right summit is a timely reminder of the threat Nigel Farage's Reform UK poses closer to home in Scotland. While Farage himself is hugely unpopular here, he has designs on 10 Downing Street at the next general election. The hope is that John Swinney's 'talking shop' results in much-needed action. Ian Petrie, Edinburgh The bells, the bells! Label me pedantic if you like, but someone has to call out the ludicrously over-the-top bell ringing carried out by the drivers of Edinburgh trams. Bells are rung every stop and start at platforms or lights, even restarting behind a vehicle at the latter, whilst multiple bell ringing occurs frequently traversing pedestrian-controlled crossings and many other places besides when there seems nothing other than a clear line ahead. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad During ten minutes at Haymarket I counted 20 bells rung by just four trams so one can imagine what this means across the network on a typical day; many thousands. I spent almost three weeks in Vienna recently and recall hearing a tram bell once! I have no doubt drivers are working to instruction so my challenge to Edinburgh Trams is to explain why this unnecessary behaviour when the same company's buses and traffic of all other types are not required to or feel the need to blow horns likewise. Warnings given judiciously count, those used over-indulgently do not. Mike Dunsmore, Edinburgh Perceived wisdom As I was preparing to go to the opticians in Galashiels, I read the letter by Elizabeth Scott, titled 'Wisdom of age?' (21 April). When one lectures on the perceived wisdom of age, it is only that – perceived. Wisdom is granted to individuals by others, in how they see us and how our opinions are received by the great and the good. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In Elizabeth Scott's letter, there is no wisdom, merely the usual SNP drivel about foreign lands (England), nuclear leaks (when was the last one), Scunthorpe v Grangemouth (apart from losing a fortune and the least useful refinery in Europe) and the nonsense of 'being at the mercy of a foreign government'. This is the UK – not South Korea or Taiwan! Sadly in the land of the fluffy 'freedom' movement, nobody addresses the large number of elephants in the room – financially a disaster, a government which has produced the sum total of baby boxes in 21 years, ideologically-driven and denying a Supreme Court judgement and also the best of all in my time observing politics: painting on windows for a photo shoot. I think I will keep my perceived wisdom to myself. David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders Trump's Yalta Anent Doug Morrison's letter (23 April), it was of course Franklin Roosevelt, not Theodore, who was the United States President in the Second World War until his death in April 1945. Nor, to be strictly accurate, did he 'work together' with Churchill to defeat Germany until December 1941 when the USA was itself attacked by Japan. And they trusted each other only up to a point – with Roosevelt mistrusting Churchill on the British Empire and Churchill mistrusting Roosevelt on his wish to accommodate Stalin's own empire-building. Nor is it only President Trump who 'lacks the courage to fully support' Ukraine – President Biden and German Chancellor Schulz were also prepared to give Ukraine only enough to fight back but not enough for the decisive win which many military experts thought was feasible in late 2022/early 2023. However, it does seem that Trump will now emulate the frail and ailing Roosevelt in his caving in to Stalin at Yalta on redrawing Eastern Europe's borders, rather than on his much more robust and decisive actions from December 1941 to 1944. John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife Hole in one Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Martin Dempster (Scotsman, 22 April) correctly points out that the initiative from the St Andrews Links Trust to encourage more Scottish golfers to play the hallowed links is to be commended. The relentless recent commercialisation of the links which in 2023 resulted in a surplus of £11.4 million fuelled by 153,000 visitor rounds has undoubtedly worked to the disadvantage of Scottish golfers. Hopefully this is a sign that the Trust are recognising their responsibilities under the 1974 Act and their obligations under the charities legislations and will now allow them to focus on resident as well as visiting golfers. The St Andrews Resident Golfers Association welcomes this announcement and wish to work with the Trust to the benefit of those who have had the privileged right to play the Old Course for centuries. John Winter, Secretary, St Andrews Resident Golfers Association, St Andrews, Fife Write to The Scotsman Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
The Herald Scotland
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Maggie Chapman accuses Supreme Court of 'bigotry'
The court said that 'man' and 'woman' in that Act refer to biological sex, not acquired gender. Speaking at a protest about the judgment in Aberdeen over the weekend, Green MSP Maggie Chapman accused the justices of 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred.' She told the crowd: 'And we say not in our name to the bigotry, prejudice and hatred that we see coming from the Supreme Court and from so many other institutions in our society.' Read more: The comments were branded 'disgraceful' by Akua Reindorf KC, a Commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission. She said: 'As a lawyer I am deeply concerned to see an elected politician publicly undermining the separation of powers in our democracy with irresponsible and entirely false allegations of bigotry and hatred against the judiciary. Disgraceful.' As a lawyer I am deeply concerned to see an elected politician publicly undermining the separation of powers in our democracy with irresponsible and entirely false allegations of bigotry and hatred against the judiciary. Disgraceful. — Akua Reindorf KC (@akuareindorf) April 21, 2025 Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry said it was 'wholly inappropriate for any parliamentarian to speak about the judiciary in this way.' 'This person is not fit to convene a parliamentary committee on equalities, human rights & justice,' she added. 'She should resign her position.' Under the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, MSPs have a legal obligation to uphold the independence of the judiciary. The Green politician could potentially be referred to the Scottish Parliament's Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee for possible breaches of the MSP Code of Conduct, which includes duties to uphold the rule of law and respect the institutions of government. The calls for Ms Chapman to quit as deputy convenor come as the Committee also faces mounting criticism over its 2022 scrutiny of the SNP's Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill. At the time, MSPs dismissed and downplayed concerns from feminist groups about the legal significance of the interaction between the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Equality Act 2010. In a letter to Ms Johnstone and all members of the Equalities Committee, the policy group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (MBM) said: 'The Committee not only failed to identify the interaction of the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act as a critical matter for the Bill, but actively dismissed this as a relevant issue,' the group wrote. 'The choices made by the Committee in the handling of the Bill reduced the quality and usefulness of its scrutiny. The Committee became a contributor and key player in increasing tensions around this topic.' READ MORE: MSPs passed the GRR Bill in December 2023. The aim of the legislation was to simplify and speed up the process for a trans person to obtain a GRC and change their legal sex. Under the current system, the process takes at least two years, involves a medical diagnosis, and is only available to those aged 18 and over. The SNP legislation would have cut the waiting time to six months and lowered the age threshold to 16. It also proposed scrapping the medical diagnosis requirement, bringing in a form of self-identification. However, before it could become law, the then-Tory Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, blocked it by using the first-ever order under Section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act. During the Bill's passage in 2022, multiple submissions raised concerns about how changing the process to acquire a GRC might affect access to single-sex services and legal protections for women under the Equality Act. Despite this, the Committee accepted assurances from Scottish Government officials and advocacy groups that this was not the case, describing the change as merely bureaucratic. They also argued that the Equality Act's exemptions — which allow some trans people to be excluded from single-sex spaces — would remain in place.' Then Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison repeatedly told MSPs the legislation would have no impact on the Equality Act. She said: 'It could not have, because the 2010 Act is reserved, and we would not want it to, because we think that the exceptions are important.' She continued: 'The fundamental rights that protect transgender people, which are reserved under the 2010 Act, remain the same. They will be the same on the day before the Bill becomes legislation and on the day after it becomes legislation — if it does, as I hope it will.' However, in court proceedings running parallel to parliamentary scrutiny, the Scottish Government adopted a different position — arguing that someone who obtained a GRC had changed their legal sex under the Equality Act. MBM said this contradiction was not made clear to MSPs, with the then committee convenor ruling discussion of it "out of scope." They also accused the Committee of taking 'no action' to ensure members were properly informed of a key Court of Session judgment when, in December 2022, Lady Haldane ruled that sex was 'not limited to biological or birth sex' and could include those with a GRC. READ MORE: The Committee recently wrote to several stakeholders asking them to respond to last week's judgment. MBM said the process appeared selective, noting that several organisations who had intervened in the case — including Scottish Lesbians, Amnesty International, Sex Matters, and the LGB Alliance — were excluded from the initial round of contact. The Committee gave recipients just three working days to respond. While letters to ministers in the Scottish and UK governments, the EHRC, and the Equality Network acknowledged the tight deadline and said they understood recipients 'may not immediately be in a position to provide a full response,' the letter to For Women Scotland — the only volunteer group contacted — did not. MBM said: 'The Committee's failure to discharge its responsibilities properly in 2022 should not be repeated in its handling of the Supreme Court judgment. We are concerned that the letters sent on Thursday evening do not bode well for how some members plan to use their platform on the Committee in the weeks ahead. 'Nor does behaviour now reported by the Deputy Convener this weekend, who referred to 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred' coming from the Supreme Court. 'In our view, the Committee now presents an urgent reputational issue for the Parliament as a whole. For that reason, we are copying this letter to the Presiding Officer in her capacity as the chair of the Conveners' Group. 'The people of Scotland are entitled to expect of any committee of the Scottish Parliament a serious, legally well-founded and evidence-based response to the judgment, which fully respects that women have rights based, as the Supreme Court has now left in no doubt, on their sex.' Susan Smith of For Women Scotland said: 'Naturally, we cannot help but notice the rudeness with which we were addressed compared to the paid lobbyists, and we fear it was deliberate. Clearly, the convener does not consider that our time is valuable. 'The ruling is very clear and we aren't really sure what the committee hopes to understand or if this is simply an opening salvo in a continued determination to ignore or misunderstand the law. 'The inflammatory rhetoric from Maggie Chapman this weekend about the judiciary is damaging to the reputation of Holyrood and to the Committee in particular. It behoves all MSPs to remember that under the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, members of the Scottish Parliament must uphold the continued independence of the judiciary." She added: 'Unless Ms Chapman resigns, we fear that the Equalities and Human Rights Committee will be unfit to oversee the development of human rights legislation in our Parliament.' A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens said: 'With two public consultations and months of evidence-gathering and committee discussion, the Gender Recognition Reform Bill was one of the most scrutinised bills the Scottish Parliament has ever passed. And it was voted for by MSPs from across the Chamber before being undemocratically blocked by Westminster. 'We have no regrets about backing the reform, which is already normal in a number of other countries. It would have been a simple step that would have made a big difference to the lives of trans people. 'We cannot speak for the Equalities Committee, but we assume that they will be reflecting upon the decision and will provide an update on it in time. 'Last week's ruling has caused a great deal of concern, particularly for trans people and their loved ones who are concerned about seeing long-held rights being rolled back and about the hostility and culture war being waged against them.' A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: 'The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee has received correspondence from Murray Blackburn Mackenzie. As with all correspondence, the Committee will consider it and provide a response in due course.'
