The Scottish government has hailed a “historic day for equality” after MSPs approved plans to make it easier and less intrusive for individuals to legally change their gender, extending the new system of self-identification to 16- and 17-year-olds for the first time.
Six years after it was proposed by the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, after two of the largest public consultations in the history of the Scottish parliament and amid an increasingly toxic and polarised political discourse, the bill was passed by MSPs on Thursday in a specially extended session.
As a mark of the escalating tensions surrounding the changes, the debate was disrupted minutes before the final vote by protesters in the public gallery shouting “shame on you” and “this is the darkest day”.
The final vote followed an unprecedented two days of debate as members worked cross-party and past midnight on more than 150 amendments to address concerns about abusive males potentially taking advantage of the new system, and its impact on UK equality law.
The gender recognition reform (Scotland) bill removes the need for a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria in order to obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC), and extends the application process to 16- and 17-year-olds for the first time.
Scotland’s new self-identification system will also reduce the time someone must have been permanently living in their acquired gender before they can apply – from two years to three months, or six months for those aged 16 and 17 – with a three-month reflection period during which an individual can change their mind.
Despite the concerns of some SNP backbenchers, the bill passed comfortably with support from the Scottish Greens, Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Nine SNP MSPs voted against their government, including Ash Regan, the former minister who quit in protest at the first vote. Two Labour members – who were whipped to vote in favour – also rebelled, while three Tories, who were allowed a free vote, supported it.
Proposing the final version of the bill to parliament, the social justice minister, Shona Robison, said that, like equal marriage and civil partnership legislation before it, “this is an important step to creating a more equal Scotland”.
Justice minister Shona Robison
Justice minister Shona Robison called the legislation ‘an important step to creating a more equal Scotland’. Photograph: Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament/PA
Robison insisted that applying for a GRC under the new system would continue to be “a substantial and significant legal process”, with safeguards strengthened during the passage of the bill, and the bill “doesn’t change public policy … around provision of single-sex spaces and services”.