JK Rowling speaks out against Sturgeon’s trans plans

News

JK Rowling has been locked in a war of words with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in recent weeks over the country’s proposed Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which would introduce gender ‘self-ID’.

The Harry Potter author has expressed her deep concern that allowing men to identify as women after just three months of living in their “acquired gender” (whatever that means – Rowling points out that no one seems to know) and with a promise to keep on doing so will put women at risk.

This is not because she and her fellow campaigners think all ‘transgender women’ (i.e. gender-confused males) are predators, by any means, she says. But only that some of them are, and indeed some predatory men will inevitably see transgenderism as a way of gaining access to private women’s spaces, such as public toilets, changing rooms, rape support centres, domestic violence refuges, hospital wards and prison cells.

Rowling notes, with justified cynicism, that half of Scottish prisoners currently claiming a transgender identity only did so after conviction. She also points out that official figures show that a greater proportion of transgender-identified men in prison are there for sexual offences than among incarcerated men in general.

Sturgeon – whom Rowling has branded a “destroyer of women’s rights” – has dismissed the objections, saying she is a “real feminist” and brazenly denying there is any conflict between her reforms and women’s rights. She has pledged to push forward with plans to lower the age at which a person can change legal sex from 18 to 16 (allowing minors to do so without their parents’ consent), slash the waiting period from two years to three months and do away with all requirements for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria or any other evidence.

The Bill looks set to become law as a majority of MSPs are expected to vote in favour. However, recent polling shows that the politicians are out of touch with their constituents on this, with 62% of the public opposed to lowering the age limit versus 19% in favour, 50% opposed to reducing the waiting time versus 25% in favour and 39% opposed to removing the medical diagnosis requirement versus 26% in favour.

At C4M we urge Scotland’s politicians to heed the justified concerns of women and the public and abandon these unnecessary and misguided reforms.