The SNP’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill has been compared by J.K. Rowling to Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax, which sparked riots in the nation, and has been called “the largest attack on the rights of Scottish women and girls” in her lifetime.
The creator of the Harry Potter series has spoken out strongly against the legislation that would make it simpler for transgender persons to alter their legal sex.
The single worst attack on the rights of Scottish women and girls in my lifetime, according to Ms. Rowling’s tweet from today, is rejected by two thirds of voters. This is a poll tax from @NicolaSturgeon.
As a replacement for domestic rates, Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax, also known as the “Community Charge,” was implemented in Scotland in April 1989. It was immediately met with fierce resistance and a coordinated campaign of non-payment.
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill will be put to a final vote at Holyrood next week, and it is anticipated that the ideas will pass. Ms. Rowling’s remarks come only days before that vote.
Her tweet also made mention of a recent survey that revealed two thirds of respondents rejected the Gender Recognition Reform Bill’s main tenants.
Voters are skeptical about the main changes in the bill, which would lower the age at which someone can apply to formally change their gender from 18 to 16, and allow people to self-identify in their new gender without a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria, according to research conducted by YouGov for The Times.
The survey, however, also revealed that the 16 to 24 age group supported the law.
The survey found that 66% of respondents opposed lowering the age requirement, making it the initiative that encountered the most opposition. Despite the fact that all three parties supported the measure at Holyrood, this includes 75% of Liberal Democrats, 63% of SNP supporters, and 67% of votes for Labour.
The first legislative vote on the reforms sparked the worst SNP revolt in the government’s fifteen years, and several Labour MSPs, even those who remained loyal to the leadership, expressed unease with the ideas unless major changes were made.
A majority of individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 were the only age group where a majority of respondents (21%) supported decreasing the age restriction.
In order to allay worries about the lower age restriction, SNP ministers have already agreed to introduce further protections, requiring 16 and 17-year-olds to live in their new identity for twice as long as adults.
Younger teens will now have to wait six months, as opposed to three, before requesting a gender recognition certificate, as a result of the revisions. For individuals who are 18 years of age and older, the time will still last for three months, after which there will be a three-month “cooling-off period.”
According to the survey, 60% of respondents were against proposals to do away with the need that a doctor diagnose gender dysphoria. The reform was supported by 20% of voters, while 20% were undecided.
But proponents of the law assert that it won’t significantly affect anybody outside of the trans community because of how much simpler their lives will be as a result of the reforms.
Scottish Trans declared its support for the changes that would more closely align the Gender Recognition Act with global norms.
The nonprofit organization stated: “Scottish Trans supports these reforms and believes they will have a significant impact on the lives of trans men and women in Scotland, who currently must invest a lot of time and money in a challenging, unjust, and bureaucratic process just to have their mode of living acknowledged on some of their records.
Although a significant step forward, the proposed changes would leave Scotland with a gender recognition legislation that is far from being the best in the world.
Other nations have changed their laws in a far more ambitious manner to make sure that all trans individuals may be acknowledged and accepted for who they are.
Making a false statutory declaration or application to alter one’s gender would be a crime under the proposed legislation, and anyone found guilty might face fines in the infinite range and jail terms of up to two years. The general population supported this, with 59% in favor, 15% opposing, and 26% undecided.
1 090 adults in Scotland, 16 and older, were surveyed by YouGov between December 6 and 9.
Nicola Sturgeon has received harsh criticism from Ms. Rowling on several occasions. She published a photo of herself wearing a t-shirt in October that said, “Nicola Sturgeon, destroyer of women’s rights.”
She also said earlier this week that she would support a new program for victims of sexual assault that is only for women.
The 57-year-old claimed to have developed and to fund Beira’s Place, an Edinburgh-based facility that will not accept sexual assault victims who identify as female but were really born male.
Free individual and group counseling will be available at Beira’s Place.
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill is opposed by the organization’s board of directors.
They include Dr. Margaret McCartney, a Glasgow general practitioner and professor, as well as Rhona Hotchkiss, a former prison administrator.
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