Scotland looks set to pass controversial gender reforms that would make it easier for transgender people to change their registered sex.
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill will remove the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
It will also lower the minimum age for applicants to 16 and reduce the time an applicant needs to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months (or six for 16- and 17-year-olds) – although there will be three months a period of reflection.
MSPs will consider the last of the 153 amendments tabled in stage three of the bill after a marathon session of Parliament yesterday, before a final vote this afternoon.
The meeting was interrupted by protests from the public gallery, with opponents of the bill shouting “shame on you all” as an amendment that would have made it harder for sex offenders to apply for the GRC was rejected.
The Scottish Tories also appear to be trying to make the procedure as long as possible by tabling four amendments to the agenda, forcing a vote on the timetable for consideration of the amendments, raising a further motion for a vote by MSPs and several points of order – all before the debate on the changes.
The party also chose to put the amendments to a vote – even when the mover of the amendments did not.
It is one of the most controversial bills at Holyrood since devolution.
Opponents have raised concerns about its impact on the safety of women and girls, while the Scottish Government has insisted it will not affect the Equality Act – which allows trans people to be excluded from single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and shelters.
The likely passage of the bill – which has support across the SNP, the Greens, Labor and the Lib Dems – could raise further disciplinary issues within the SNP after seven ruling party MSPs voted against it and two others abstained at the first stage.
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