Nicola Sturgeon confronted about erasure of women’s rights

On Tuesday, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was confronted over women's rights while giving a speech at the 30th anniversary gathering by Zero Tolerance in Edinburgh.

The charity, which believes male violence should not be tolerated, sent a note to attendees prior to the event, asking them to refrain from discussions about single sex spaces.

Alexandra Darroch, a charity sector worker concerned about the rights of all biological women and girls, confronted the First Minister moments into her address.

She told the First Minister, “You’ve fomented this culture in Scotland that basically tells women they are bigoted for standing up for women’s rights. I see you, and thousands of women around Scotland see you….You are allowing paedophiles, sex offenders and rapists to self-ID in Scotland and put women at risk. Women campaigning for women’s rights is not against trans people.”

Ms Darroch said that the Scottish Government’s plans to reform the law to allow people to self-identify their legal gender undermines women’s rights. She also compared the silencing of women’s voices on gender issues to an abusive relationship.

Commenting on her interruption at the conference, Ms Darroch stated, “It’s important to speak out. The whole thing about free speech and our human rights are getting trodden all over and that’s not what the UK is about…”

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scottish) Bill has laid out proposals to remove the need for people to have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria before they can get a recognition certificate and is set to reduce the minimum age from 18 to 16.