A Scottish National Party (SNP) MP has urged her party leader to "eat humble pie" and change controversial gender self-ID legislation.
Joanna Cherry, the member for Edinburgh South West in the UK parliament in Westminster, warned Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in a tweet that the furore over the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill had caused support for Scottish independence to drop sharply from 53 per cent in December to 47 per cent now.
"It’s time to admit that feminist criticisms of self-ID and the GRR Bill were right, eat some humble pie and sort this mess out before it does any more damage to the reputation of our party, parliament and the cause of Scotland’s independence," Cherry wrote.
The MP reiterated her opposition to the Conservative government's decision to block the Scottish legislation using powers in the 1998 act that created the devolved Scottish administration and parliament, saying: "this problem should be sorted out in Scotland without further interference by the U.K. Govt."
The bill, passed in late December despite protests by women's groups, was thrown back into the spotlight in January after convicted double rapist Isla Bryson, who began identifying as transsexual and changed his name from Adam Graham only after his first court appearance, was imprisoned at the Cornton Vale women's and young offenders' jail in Stirling.
If it became law, the bill would allow individuals as young as 16 to obtain a legal Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) as a member of the opposite sex after just three months living under their new identity — not the two years required under current UK law — without the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The 2004 Gender Recognition Act had already removed the requirement for applicants to have gender reassignment surgery or hormone replacement therapy.
The SNP and its governing coalition partner the Scottish Greens voted down an amendment moved by the Scottish Conservatives to deny convicted sex offenders legal status as transgender.
Tweeted images of convicted Scottish transsexual rapist Isla Bryson, AKA Adam Graham, before transitioning (right) and while on trial (left)
Sturgeon was forced to announce that Bryson would be moved to an unspecified location after struggling to justify her party's position that everyone must be accepted as a member of the sex of their choice — contradicting her justice secretary Keith Brown's comments just days earlier that the rapist should be treated as a woman.
Cherry, a barrister who is openly lesbian, has long been critical of her party's stance on transgender issues — and has been sidelined as a result. In February 2021 she was sacked as the party's Westminster spokeswoman on Home Affairs, a post she had held for six years.
Hundreds gathered in central Glasgow on Saturday for a rally against the bill, called by feminist groups Let Women Speak and For Women Scotland.
Transgender activists held a small but vocal counter-protest nearby, separated by police.
A threat that up to 1,000 'Furry' fetish cosplayers — in town for their convention — would turn up to disrupt the feminist gathering failed to materialise, with only one spotted.
A 'furry' cosplayer attends a transgender activist counter-protest to a feminist rally in Glasgow, Scotland on February 4 2023
One trans-man attacked a woman holding a placard as she rode past in the back of a cycle rickshaw, shouting abuse along with others as police intervened before lifting her shirt to show the scars from her double mastectomy.