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The Herald Scotland
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Johann Lamont on the politics of sex and gender in Scotland
'I wouldn't want to create the impression that the 'six-words' debate was just my work. Women had worked hard to get the committee to recommend the amendment." It passed for two reasons: MSPs were confronted with having to vote down an amendment that gave effect to the most strongly argued plea of survivors and the internal campaign by SNP women - notably Joan McAlpine (and Labour's Elaine Smith and Jenny Marra in ensuring Labour would vote for it) was matched by an external campaign of women coming together to apply pressure to MSPs. Crucially, Jeane Freeman - the then Health Minister - accepted it in the chamber, meaning that SNP backbenchers wouldn't vote against it. Johann Lamont is that rare creature in modern Scottish politics: a woman with a substantial hinterland of work and experience prior to her political career, derived from two decades as a secondary school teacher and as an advocate for the rights of survivors of male sexual violence. She's one of dozens of politicians who have stepped down from Holyrood in the last few years, but none have been as missed as much as she. When I told one political observer that I was interviewing her, he said: 'If Anas Sarwar had more people like her on his front bench he might not now be facing another defeat in next year's elections. He should also have listened to her in the course of the GRR legislation.' She despairs at the responses of Scotland's political and trade union establishment to the Supreme Court's verdict and reserves most of her condemnation for those whom she considers to have indulged in 'luxury beliefs' at the expense of their true feelings. 'They'd effectively forced women into the position of taking them on,' she says 'and should be displaying some humility about their part in this. The people who must be condemned most are those who didn't really believe in what they were saying, but went along with it because it didn't personally affect them and maybe got them some kudos. 'I've met a lot of zealots in my life and career but not on the scale of this debate. What's been astounding has been the lack of self-reflection; the lack of grace; the lack of seriousness even right up to John Swinney, who likes to portray himself as serious merely by looking serious. 'What does it say about the state of Scottish and British politics that it takes a grassroots women's organisation to go to the Supreme Court before they'll even acknowledge there's an issue. I can't believe that he (Swinney) thinks anyone can change sex. And look if people want to dress differently and identify differently, fair enough: just so long as they're not harming anyone else. I'm a child of the 70s: I don't care. I just don't think he believes any of it.' She also describes Nicola Sturgeon's conduct in the GRR debate and in the aftermath of the Supreme Court verdict as 'unforgivable'. On the previous day, the former First Minister had declared that trans people's lives could be made unliveable following the Supreme Court verdict and the interim guidance of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. 'One of the consequences of misrepresenting the law,' said Ms Lamont 'was young girls being assaulted; predatory male behaviour being excused and even people trying to justify a rapist in a women's prison. Sturgeon's comment yesterday about this making trans lives unliveable is dangerous. 'We must remember another group in all of this: those young people who have made life-changing decisions about their bodies. We're talking about young people having unnecessary double mastectomies. These young people have been told that women like me 'hate' them and don't want them to exist. And now we have a senior politician saying it's making their lives unliveable. It's beyond belief that she should say something like that. 'This sort of language is over-hyped and irresponsible and all for a cause where nobody's rights are actually being infringed, just so that you can make a cause out of it. I find that unforgivable.' Everyone can imagine a Sandie Peggie in their workplace: a diligent, hard-working, decent woman who comes up against something; tries to deal with it in a humane way and ends up in trouble. She also despairs at the fundamental dishonesty and lack of integrity that underpins Holyrood's fixation with gender theory. 'You have to wonder if there was a financial aspect to this,' she says. 'When money's scarce they'll favour causes that won't; cost much. I think trans rights became attractive to them because of this. 'Women's rights are much more difficult. You're talking about equal pay; about people changing the way they run their lives and how they manage their families. Men stepping aside for women in consequential positions. Trans rights simply ticked a lot of boxes. It's why corporations have signed up for it. It's a no-cost opportunity to flash their virtues.' So, why did she step up on this issue when her own party leadership was whipping its MSPs to vote for self-ID? Sightings of Scottish politicians voting with their principles are rare. 'As an older woman, I can live with their condemnation because whatever I am, I am. There's nothing they have that I need. I believe in this strongly, but also know that other people can't speak up. My mum taught me that 'hate' is a terribly strong word and you should always think very seriously before using it. So I find it unforgivable that people throw this word around. She also taught me that if someone is being bullied, then if you can speak up, you should. As a teacher we would tell children that they don't have to be bullied. The truth was though, that it was almost impossible for them to speak up. And so you had a responsibility to speak up for them. 'In this debate, women were saying to me: 'I'm so glad you're saying this because it's impossible for me to'. These were women in trade unions and in the workplace. That is why the Sandie Peggie case for me has had such an impact. Everyone can imagine a Sandie Peggie in their workplace: a diligent, hard-working, decent woman who comes up against something; tries to deal with it in a humane way and ends up in trouble. 'There was also a sense that so much of this had happened and I hadn't noticed. How did I take my eye off something that I cared so deeply about and didn't notice? How could I have missed that women were being silenced? I felt this was literally my job and so I had to do something. 'I had the opportunity to go back to what I was doing as a younger woman. Back then, younger women in party politics were always working with women from outside the political mainstream. There was nothing mainstream about the women who created Rape Crisis centres and Women's Aid. So it became a bit of a joy to me to be able to work with people like Joan McAlpine and Joanna Cherry and finding common cause across party lines. 'If anyone had said as we were putting through the Equality Act that one of the protected characteristics of sex would come to include men who identified as women, we would have said 'No!'. 'Pre-Covid, I couldn't have foreseen that we'd stop doing things that were making people's lives better and that we'd instead be pursuing things just to make some people feel good about themselves. 'The young me could never have imagined that somebody in the Supreme Court would have to tell us – and only after a group of women had raised funding to approach them – to define what's a man and what's a woman. It would have seemed inconceivable.' Read more: Ms Lamont is now a trustee of Beira's Place, the support service founded by JK Rowling to provide female-led ministry and resources for victims of sexual violence and abuse. It ensures these women can be assured that their trauma will only be dealt with by other women. It's how she can continue to help repair the damage caused by the Scottish politicians who failed these women.
Spectator
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Watch: Sturgeon refuses to apologise to women over gender ruling
Well, well, well. Nicola Sturgeon has finally broken her silence over the Supreme Court judgment that backed the biological definition of a woman. Speaking to journalists in Holyrood today, Sturgeon insisted that while she accepts the ruling from the highest court in the land, she remains concerned about the impact on the lives of transgender people. And when she was asked whether she would now apologise to women's rights campaigners – who she has previously criticised while pushing through her gender reforms – Scotland's former first minister declined. How curious… Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry previously called for an apology from the party's former Dear Leader in the Spectator, writing that: 'No less a person than Scotland's former first minister Nicola Sturgeon called women right's campaigners like us bigots, transphobes, racists and homophobes. An apology to the women of Scotland is in order.' Yet no apology came. Today, the ex-FM was pressed by a reporter: 'For Women Scotland and Joanna Cherry feel that their views were ignored during the passage of the GRR bill and say that you owe them an apology following the Supreme Court ruling.
The Herald Scotland
27-04-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Swinney's pantomime summit attendees represented the worst of Scotland
The venue was kept secret from the prying eyes of voters. Mr Swinney later said that Scotland's shared values were facing a 'huge threat' from disinformation being spread by the 'hard right'. Aye right. Those pictures which the First Minister allowed to be released into the public domain showed him flanked by some of the most reactionary and intolerant people in Scottish public life. There was Patrick Harvie of the Scottish Greens whose gaslighting of feminists and lesbians proclaiming the truth about sex has been malevolent and insidious. His public smearing of his parliamentary colleague Kate Forbes in Holyrood last year alongside Ross Greer, the Bearsden Bolshevik, was sickening to behold. This outfit believes in the medical castration of vulnerable young people by prescribing them with puberty blockers. Anas Sarwar was there too. This man had earlier claimed he'd always supported single-sex spaces. Yet he had whipped his hapless MSPs into voting for the SNP's ruinous and sinister GRR legislation. Even after the UK Supreme Court, later backed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, had unanimously decided what the rest of us know to be true – trans women aren't women – none of these political leaders can yet bring themselves to speak that truth. Now, you might consider that Reform UK, who were excluded from Mr Swinney's summit, are indeed a threat to democracy. But in the last 10 years, no individuals have done more to undermine democracy and decency in Scottish public life than Mr Swinney, his puppet master Nicola Sturgeon, and the Scottish Greens. I'm told, too, that at least two journalists attended this event in some kind of official capacity. Don't they know that they're supposed to be scrutinising these people and holding them to account: not participating in their worthless pantomime? Get a grip of yourselves: these roasters are not your friends. Read more: Kevin McKenna: An extra 20k for ministers? John Swinney's now trolling Scotland Kevin McKenna: How the SNP and Labour killed off left-wing politics The weak ahead REPRESENTATIVES at Mr Swinney's Teletubbies summit represent the very worst of Scotland: duplicitous, cowardly, dishonest and weak. They do serve one purpose, however. Those of us feeling depressed about underachieving at work or falling prey to our worst instincts can perk up by watching them in action. You might be suffering issues with your self-esteem, but you'd have to go some distance to reach the levels of incompetence and failure of this shower. Bashing the Bishop MY agents tell me that among those attending this convocation were several faith leaders. Sadly, these included a Catholic bishop and his assistant. I'll spare him the further embarrassment of naming him. I've only one question to ask of you, my Lord Bishop: what in the name of Jesus, Mary and Joseph possessed you to attend a gathering such as this? Let me spell it out for you: these people don't like you and loathe what you represent. None of them are your friends either. All you've done by attending this ridiculous assemblage is become complicit in their malevolence and ineptitude. Please tell me you didn't add your name to that meaningless parchment drafted to confirm your foolish complicity. And tell me something else, my Lord Bishop: do you intend to provide a full account of these proceedings to the members of your own flock? And if you did sign up to their dishonest agenda, will you tell us why and answer questions about it? Kevin McKenna: It wasn't Alex Salmond who built the culture of fear within the SNP Kevin McKenna: Sorry Mr Swinney, this isn't Full-on John. This is John of the Dead Supreme being In the interests of fairness, and being faithful to the public record, I'm happy to report that the Catholic Church in Scotland has finally provided its response to the Supreme Court's judgment on the correct interpretation of the Equality Act. Curiously, the Bishops' Conference have had very little to say about a matter of crucial importance to the nation, save for a statement three years ago. Last week, a spokesperson for the Scottish Bishops sent me the following statement which was rather overtaken by the Pope's death. It's a good one. 'The Catholic Church in Scotland welcomes the judgment of the Supreme Court. Gender based on biological identity has been a constant belief and accepted fact of the patrimony of humanity. 'God created them male and female, equal in dignity and complementary. 'As Pope Francis has said: 'Cancelling out our differences means cancelling out our humanity.' An ideology based on choice alone that seeks to override the established balance of sexual identity is detrimental to our society. 'The Church also acknowledges the pain and isolation of those who struggle with their sexual identity and lovingly respects and supports them through its pastoral ministry.' It would be interesting to know if the Bishop drawing the short straw to attend John Swinney's summit made these views known to all those there pushing the gender ideology lie.
Telegraph
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Green MSP urged to quit after accusing Supreme Court of bigotry
A Green MSP has been urged to resign after accusing the UK's highest court of spreading 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred' by ruling that a trans woman is not a woman. Maggie Chapman, who is deputy convener of Holyrood's equalities committee, was filmed lambasting the Supreme Court at a gathering of trans activists in Aberdeen at the weekend. Speaking into a microphone on the street, the North East Scotland MSP and high-profile trans activist said that the 'prejudice' evinced by the court was 'not in our name, never in our name'. But feminist campaigners and the Tories accused Ms Chapman of attempting to 'smear' the Supreme Court and argued she should resign, either as an MSP or as the committee's second-in-command. Akua Reindorf KC, a commissioner at the UK's equalities watchdog, said she was 'deeply concerned' at an elected politician making 'irresponsible and entirely false allegations of bigotry and hatred' directed at the judiciary. Shirley-Anne Somerville, the SNP's Social Justice Secretary, is expected to make a statement to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday afternoon about the implications of last week's judgment. Nicola Sturgeon's government planned to allow people to self-identify their legal gender by signing a simple declaration, with no medical diagnosis. Her controversial Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill was vetoed by the UK Government over concerns it undermined women's safe spaces. But it has emerged that swathes of Scotland's public sector have adopted self-ID anyway to allow trans people to access female lavatories and changing rooms. The Scottish Government's guidance for its trans employees states they 'should choose to use the facilities they feel most comfortable with ', regardless of whether they have changed legal gender. Experts have warned that public bodies will now have to revise their self-ID policies following the Supreme Court ruling, which was the climax of a lengthy legal battle between the SNP Government and the feminist campaign group For Women Scotland. The footage of Ms Chapman's speech, posted on X, showed her telling trans activists: '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. Not in our name, never in our name.' Ms Reindorf, who specialises in employment, discrimination and human rights law, and is a commissioner at the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, tweeted: '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.' For Women Scotland tweeted: 'Insane comments from an elected politician as she accuses the highest court in the land of 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred'. 'Remember, this woman is deputy convener of the committee that looked at the GRR. She clearly cares nothing for the law and is unfit to be an MSP.' Joanna Cherry KC, a former SNP MP and outspoken critic of self-ID, tweeted: 'It is wholly inappropriate for any parliamentarian to speak about the judiciary in this way and to so misrepresent their judgment. 'This person is not fit to convene a parliamentary committee on equalities, human rights and justice. She should resign her position.' Tess White, the Scottish Tories' shadow equalities minister, said Ms Chapman's remarks were 'utterly disgraceful'. 'It is appalling that any elected MSP would smear the UK's highest court in this way and she should apologise urgently for her disrespectful comments,' she added. John Swinney, the First Minister, repeatedly refused to say at the weekend that a trans woman was not a woman, despite the court's ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. Mr Swinney also said he did not regret backing the GRR Bill, having previously stated in February that he thought trans women were women.
Telegraph
11-03-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Edinburgh University allows trans women to use female toilets
One of Britain's most eminent universities has drawn up a new trans policy allowing biological men to access female toilets and changing rooms if they self-identify as women. Edinburgh University's policy permits staff to use 'the toilet facilities that align with their gender identity' rather than their biological sex, even if they have not changed legal gender. An equality impact assessment carried out ahead of the new policy taking effect stated that 'as a matter of law, access to facilities on the basis of gender identity makes those facilities mixed-sex rather than single-sex facilities'. The university's campuses will have 'appropriate facilities' which will include 'gender neutral/individual spaces', according to a policy pledge reported in the Herald. Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters warned that the policy ignored the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. She said Edinburgh University was 'yet another public sector organisation…putting itself at risk by ignoring the 1992 regulations which make it perfectly clear that single-sex facilities must be provided in workplaces. 'Nothing in the Equality Act changes that fact.' The regulations state that changing rooms and toilets will not be suitable 'unless they include separate facilities for, or separate use of facilities by, men and women where necessary for reasons of propriety'. Academics warned that the regulatory definition of woman did not include transgender people who self-identified as women, especially if they did not have a gender recognition certificate. Although the Russell Group university is providing additional gender-neutral facilities, it must still comply with the 1992 regulations for its male and female spaces. The policy emerged in the wake of a landmark employment tribunal in Scotland about the right of trans people to access female-only areas. NHS Fife accused nurse Sandie Peggie of misconduct after she challenged the presence of Dr Beth Upton, who was born male but identifies as a woman, in a female changing room in a hospital. The Equality and Human Rights Commission watchdog has since written to the health board to warn about its duty to protect single sex spaces. It also demanded a meeting with Neil Gray, the SNP Health Secretary, over NHS Scotland's forthcoming guidance on trans issues. 'Stop listening to activists' Ms McAnena said: 'What will it take for organisations to take seriously their legal responsibility to provide safety and dignity to female staff, and students in this case, through the provision of separate-sex facilities? 'Women and men have separate toilets and changing rooms for good reason. The leadership of Edinburgh University should stop listening to activists and fulfil its legal obligations.' Nicola Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill would have allowed Scots to change their legal gender by simply signing a statutory declaration, dropping the requirement for a formal medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The UK Government vetoed the legislation over concerns it undermined protections for women and the integrity of female safe spaces. However, it has emerged that self-ID operates anyway in parts of Scotland's public sector. 'Reckless gender self-ID policy' Tess White, the Scottish Tories' shadow minister for equalities, said: 'It is simply unacceptable that female staff and students at the University of Edinburgh do not have guaranteed single-sex facilities available to them. 'This is just the latest example of the SNP's reckless gender self-ID policy being embedded in Scotland's institutions, at the expense of the legal rights and safety of women.' According to the equality impact assessment, the only staff body involved in the review of the university's existing policy was the Staff Pride Network. An Edinburgh University spokesman told the Herald: 'We take our responsibilities to our staff and students seriously and keep our policies under review to ensure they are in line with our wide range of obligations. 'We are committed to providing appropriate facilities for all staff and students across our estate.'
