More opposition to Nicola Sturgeon's proposed Gender Recognition bill:
Proposals making it easier for transgender people to be legally recognised as their preferred gender are “unsafe” and fail to consider biomedical risks, MSPs have been warned.
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics said it was “very concerned” with the legislative proposals, in response to a parliamentary consultation. The ethics body said the bill did not sufficiently consider the latest evidence of mental disorders that are often present with gender dysphoria.
The bill sets out plans to speed up the time it takes to obtain a gender recognition certificate, and also lowers the age for obtaining one from 18 to 16. A medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria would no longer be required, and the length of time someone must have lived in their “acquired gender” before applying would be reduced from two years to three months.
The proposed Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill has been supported by a majority of MSPs on the equalities, human rights and civil justice committee.
However, the council said that removing the need for medical evidence ignored the “high prevalence of mental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder traits” that often exist in a person experiencing gender dysphoria.
Dr Calum MacKellar, the council’s director of research, said: “The proposals in the bill are unreasonable since the latest and most comprehensive studies to date [2022] show that a high prevalence of mental disorders, such as autism spectrum traits, often exist in persons with gender dysphoria/incongruence.
“If the Scottish parliament accepts this bill from the government, and removes the protection provided by a medical opinion before gender transitioning takes place, this will inevitably lead to some young Scottish persons being harmed.”
The ethics body’s response to the consultation cited research studies showing that before any treatment for children with gender dysphoria, both psychological functioning and quality of life scores were significantly below normal.
And that's before they consider the impact on women-only spaces and the threat to women's rights.
If Labour gets in at the next election – which is a cast-iron certainty as things look at the moment – then we can expect the same across the UK. Starmer has promised to ‘modernise’ the Gender Recognition Act, and leading Labour light Anneliese Dodds is keen to back him all the way:
Labour will:
▪️ban all forms of conversion therapy
▪️appoint an envoy to promote LGBT+ rights globally
▪️modernise the Gender Recognition Act and protect the Equality ActLabour leading on LGBT+ rights. The Tories paralysed by chaos.
— Anneliese Dodds 💙 (@AnnelieseDodds) October 19, 2022
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By "ban all forms of conversion therapy" she's being quite clear. A ban will include what trans activists have disingenuously branded as conversion therapy, which means any attempt to talk to or counsel those troubled children who've been victims of the social contagion that is gender dysphoria – precisely the concerns of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics. It's instant affirmation and straight onto the puberty blockers, or else you're transphobic. And this now seems to be official Labour policy.
The real conversion therapy scandal, of course, is the medical mutilation of young children many of whom are struggling with same-sex attraction. "Transing away the gay".
Mick Hartley 
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