The Social Democratic Party (SDP) opposes the Gender Recognition Reform Bill (GRR) of the Scottish Government, passed on the 22nd of December 2022. We believe – along with millions of Scottish people – that the Bill is irrational, unworkable and harmful to both young people and to women’s sex-based rights.
In fully de-medicalising the legal recognition process for trans identities the SNP and Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green MSPs have made law that denies the salience of sex-based rights and blurs the legal distinction between men and women in Scotland. The GRR also undermines parental responsibility. It makes harms more likely, not less likely.
SDP Leader William Clouston, states:
“It’s not just that the Scottish Bill is wrong. It’s that it has wider effects on UK equality legislation. The Scottish government has created a situation of potential legal conflict. If a biological male self-identifies as female and obtains a Scottish gender recognition certificate – will they be legally female throughout the rest of the UK?
Furthermore, there are many areas – such as Driving Licensing and national passports – which are UK competences and where the question of legal sex must remain fully under UK control. The government is right to strike the Scottish Bill down and the SDP fully supports it in doing so.”
SDP policy on Transgender and Biological Sex-based rights can be found here:
https://sdp.org.uk/policies/transgender-and-biological-sex-based-rights/