Meeting of the Parliament 12 March 2025
I have 11 minutes for this entire speech, but I could spend 11 minutes providing details of evidence. [Interruption.] I find it extraordinary that the member would be so oblivious to the reality of the harms that are being caused every single day.
Nicola Sturgeon was the architect of this bitterly divisive legislation and cheerleader for its dangerous ideology. She was the first female First Minister but she has caused untold damage to women’s rights. Today, she has announced that she will not seek re-election to Holyrood. I want to give Nicola Sturgeon an opportunity today to admit her mistakes and get on the right side of history. I ask her to vote for the motion. By doing so, she could send a signal to the women of Scotland that she got it wrong. Who knows? It might even be the first step in rehabilitating her record and her legacy.
I turn to her successor. John Swinney said that he has no regrets about backing self-ID, and there are concerns that he will resurrect it if he thinks that he can get away with it. He should not do so. What he should do is to issue a clear message today to all of Scotland’s public bodies and state-funded agencies. Here is that message: women and girls are legally entitled to single-sex spaces, and women and girls should never be punished for exercising their rights. That should be obvious to anyone who possesses an ounce of common sense and compassion.
I assume that Anas Sarwar’s epiphany means that Labour will support our motion. As for SNP members, I know that many of them share my party’s views. It is not too late for them to do the right thing, and I urge them to back Scotland’s women and girls. That might go some way towards repairing the damage that was done by the madness of self-ID.
I proudly move,
That the Parliament believes that the Scottish Government has failed to give sufficient clarity to the public sector about ensuring the availability of single-sex spaces for women and girls, such as toilets and changing rooms; acknowledges that this failure has resulted in workers in the public sector and school pupils having to share single-sex spaces with individuals of the opposite sex, jeopardising their safety, dignity and privacy, and subjecting some to horrific incidents of sexual abuse and harassment, and calls on the Scottish Government to urgently issue a directive to all public sector organisations requiring that adequate single-sex spaces for biological women and girls are provided on their premises in line with legal obligations.
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