7 in 10 Scots oppose ‘gender self-ID'

A majority of voters in Scotland oppose controversial Scottish Government plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act, a survey shows.

A panel base poll commissioned by For Women Scotland found that 7 in 10 adults in Scotland do not think the process for changing legal sex should be liberalised.

The same proportion felt that men who identify as women should not be able to access women-only spaces such as changing rooms.

And 9 in 10 said women should be able to expect care from biologically female staff in hospitals, care homes, and rape crisis centres.

Under current legislation – the Gender Recognition Act – a person has to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria and live as the opposite sex for two years if they want to change their legal sex on official documents.

The Scottish Government is currently drawing up plans to allow people to change their legal sex without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. They would have to declare that they’ve lived as the opposite sex for three months.

Critics warn that such a system could allow men to change their legal sex in order to access women-only spaces and perpetrate abuse.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry, a vocal critic of proposed gender recognition reforms, said that the poll demonstrates: “significant public opposition to the govern­ment’s proposals for self-iden­tification of sex.”