Gender Reforms: Regan calls on Scottish Government to apologise to Women’s Rights Campaigners

Alba Party’s Holyrood leader has welcomed news that the Scottish Government are set to ditch their legal battle over Gender Recognition Reforms.

ALBA Party Holyrood leader Ash Regan MSP has today called on the Scottish Government to apologise to Women’s Rights campaigners stating that the decision to ditch the Section 35 legal battle with the UK Government has vindicated that they were right to raise concerns over the safety of women and girls.

When the Scottish Government were pushing the Gender Recognition Reform Act through Parliament, many women raised concerns that the Act would present a risk to the safety, privacy and dignity of women and girls, and further that it was in conflict with the protections of the Equality Act.

However, then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and members of her Government said the concerns were not valid and current Deputy First Minister dismissed concerns raised that the proposals would present a safeguarding risk to women and girls.

The Alba Party MSP has now called on the Scottish Government to apologise and to rule out any attempts to bring further controversial Gender proposals forward to parliament.

Commenting Alba Party Holyrood leader Ash Regan MSP said:

“It was disappointing that we ended up in this situation in the first place but not unpredictable and I had previously warned the Scottish Government that they were attempting to face down Westminster on an issue that they would lose. Many high profile incidents have now showed us that the Gender Recognition Reforms proposed are not fit for purpose.

“Hundreds of thousands of pounds were wasted on this legal battle to appease the Scottish Green Party when instead the Scottish Government should have have listened to the concerns that women had raised.

“I resigned from the Government as I simply could not support legislation that was so ill thought out, opposed by women’s groups across Scotland and a fundamental risk to the safety of women and girls.

“The Scottish Government misled Parliament when bringing forward the legislation by claiming they were only attempting to make a small administrative change that did not interfere with the Equality Act and that there was no evidence that the policy would make it easier for predatory men to pose a greater risk to women and girls. The opposite was true and in doing so the Government brought our Parliament into disrepute.

“The Scottish Government lost the battle in court and they will further lose the support of the people of Scotland if they keep pursuing this policy. I urge Humza Yousaf to now completely scrap his Government’s Gender Reforms and an apology must now be given to Women’s Rights campaigners who had their concerns dismissed as not valid when the reality is that they were right all along.”