Scotland’s historic win for trans people gave me hope – but England has a long way to go

Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘I will never apologise for trying to spread equality, not reduce it’ (Picture: PA)

As soon as I heard that the Scottish Parliament passed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill at the end of last year, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

Finally, a victory for trans people – one that will streamline the process for people like me to change our legal gender to match with our identity.

That’s the energy I’m trying to take into 2023 because it’s proof that trans rights aren’t something we’re giving up on.

It wasn’t all good news in 2022 though.

NHS England announced it was shutting down the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) – the only nationalised service supporting young trans people and their families in Great Britain – in Spring 2023 due to the ‘current service being unable to meet the scale of rising demand’.

Specialised ‘regional services’ will take over in its place, initially based in London and the North West. A resulting guidance from the NHS then suggested ‘children and young people experiencing gender incongruence’ may just be a ‘transient phase’.

To see such an assertion from the NHS is shocking.

Similarly, trans rights suffered a setback last year when the Government announced trans people would not be included in proposed legislation to ban conversion therapy for gay, lesbian and bisexual people.

This is despite the Government’s own website stating in 2021: ‘Evidence appears to suggest that transgender people may be more likely to be offered or receive conversion therapy than cisgender lesbian, gay or bisexual people.’

As a result, the Government’s Safe To Be Me conference was cancelled after over a 100 LGBTQ+ organisations pulled out in protest. It would indeed appear that it isn’t safe to be us in the UK.

The UK also took a dive from 10th to 14th place in the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map, which lists and ranks countries based on what legal rights they have in place for LGBTQ+ people.

This fight for equality takes its toll on trans people though when public debates over our rights become polarising and toxic

Despite all this, Scotland’s historic win for trans people last month gave me hope.

It simply means that trans people no longer need a diagnosis from a medical expert in order to receive a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which can be used to change your birth certificate.

Contrary to what anti-trans activists might lead you to believe, the bill includes safeguards against misuse of the system.

According to the Scottish Government’s website: ‘It will be a criminal offence for applicants to make a false application. A new statutory aggravator and a risk‑based approach in relation to sex offences strengthen these protections.’

On the day the bill was passed, Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘I will never apologise for trying to spread equality, not reduce it.’

Seeing a political leader in the UK take such an unequivocal stand for trans rights is incredibly powerful, and Sturgeon has made it clear that fighting for those rights is important.

As my Scottish friends, and fellow advocates rejoiced, I remembered feeling a similar sense of joy and relief in 2019 when the Gender Autonomy Act passed in Iceland, where I’m from.

Scottish trans people will now be afforded rights similar to those I enjoy in my home country, which is something everybody should have.

But Iceland and Scotland are not alone – far from it.

As of 2022, over 30 countries, regions and states have adopted self-declaration laws in a similar vein, according to the charity Scottish Trans. These include Argentina, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium and my home country of Iceland.

The tide continues to change in a positive direction for trans people.

In fact, on the same day as Scotland’s victory, Spanish lawmakers in their parliament’s lower house approved a similar self-ID bill that is expected to come into effect later this year.

This fight for equality takes its toll on trans people though when public debates over our rights become polarising and toxic.

Despite Scotland’s new law focusing on streamlining the process to change legal gender, it has launched the UK into wider discourse about single-sex spaces and the idea of trans identity itself.

The debate in the Scottish Parliament became so extreme, that – in what I can only describe as a moment of complete lack of self-awareness – a woman flashed a pubic wig after the bill passed.

But the question isn’t necessarily if the UK will get past this trans moral panic – it’s a question of when.

My hope is that it will be sooner rather than later. I would like to see that we as a community can start to heal and find our place in this country, without constantly being misunderstood and vilified for our differences.

I only hope that this new bill passing in Scotland will be a driving force for further evidence-based debate and positive change for trans people across the UK.

Only then can the rest of us move towards a more equal and safe society for all – where it is indeed safe to be me.

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I would like to see that we as a community can start to heal and find our place in this country.