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Be brave and vote against the Gender Recognition Reform Bill
To Labour MSPsI hope that the court of session ruling last week has finally convinced you that it is reckless to open the path to getting a GRC to anyone who wants one? Life changing decisions which have a major impact on others should not be “simplified” (the main argument advanced for this legislation). All of the government’s disingenuous assurances that single sex spaces will be safe as “sex” is a...
No males in women’s jails – letter to Lothian MSPS
Dear Lothian MSPs I am writing to draw to your attention my objections to the SPS reinstating the shameful policy of admitting male prisoners into the female estate. My colleague and fellow constituent Lucy Hunter Blackburn has already written to you about this. “Next week, the Scottish Prison Service will introduce a policy which replaces the interim arrangements put in place following the Bryson/Graham case, and gives it more freedom to...
TROJAN HORSES – CHILDREN AND GENDER IDENTITY
I am going to say a few words about the Named Person law and the response to criticisms. Because it is relevant and there are several lessons from it.
Just as with gender identity, many people in social work said it was completely misguided to oppose the Named Person. Their argument seemed to be that the intentions of government were benevolent. There was cross party support, and the education and social work establishment were all for it. the problem was that the Named Person law called for unprecedented levels of intrusion into families’ lives and unprecedented breaches of confidentiality, authorising information-sharing about families’ lives across agencies in great and unnecessary and detail without that family’s knowledge or consent.
On the matter of empathy
The sex that is being denied a name – in the name of “empathy” On Monday, The National newspaper in Scotland published an article by Stephen Paton, one of their regular columnists “Shameful antitrans activitst lack empathy in latest attacks”. His point was that there should have been enthusiastic support for yet another Day of Trans Remembrance for all the numberless people who have allegedly died as victims of transphobia. Stephen Paton said...
No Problem? No Evidence.
Claims by Scottish Women's Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland, and Engender have been used to support the campaign for self ID of "gender". I asked for their evidence. On 16 May I sent the following letter to Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA) and to Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS). I also sent a copy to the Scottish Government asking them if they had asked for the evidence before using the claims of "no problem". “Dear... I am writing on behalf of a...
Questioning transgender ideology – Briefing for Children’s Sector in Scotland.
Why the Children’s Sector should be brave and start asking serious questions about trans-ideology.
Red Flags and Crossed Bridges: why uncriticially adopting transgender theory and policies harms children
On the harmful impact of transgender theory and policies on children - speech given to For Women.Scot meeting on 31st January 2019 Thank you very much for asking me to speak tonight. I am aware that there are many women who have done more than I have and who know more than I do and I hope that we will be able to hear from all of them. (Murray Blackburn and McKenzie Consultancy and Susan Sinclair of scottish-women.com and the great work that...
Harmful impact of transgender theory and policies on children
On the harmful impact of transgender theory and policies on children – speech given to For Women.Scot meeting on 31st January 2019
To get justice in Scotland, you must be rich or popular
If there is one thing that we citizens might agree on, in the wake of Alex Salmond’s successful legal challenge, it is that we need to have a shedload of money to take on our government. Alex Salmond’s successful crowdfunding appeal safeguarded his own personal financial security. By contrast, the government did not need to seek our support before setting out to defend itself vigorously in court with our money. Then it lost our money. But the same civil servants are still in charge.
Petition to the Scottish Parliament
I gave evidence to the Petitions Committee in November 2017 in support of Mr. Mackie’s petition calling for a review of the children protection and children’s care system in Scotland. This links to my comments on the points that the Government has made.