Transgender people have “a fundamental right” to be recognised in their legally acquired gender, the supreme court has heard in a case brought by Scottish campaigners to resolve how women are defined in law.
For Women Scotland is challenging a prior ruling by the court of session in Edinburgh, which found that Scottish government guidance extending the definition of “woman” to transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) was lawful.
Ruth Crawford KC, responding on behalf of Scottish ministers on the second day of submissions, said that the Gender Recognition Act 2004 was clear that a GRC changes sex “for all purposes”.
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Someone with a GRC is entitled to legal protections “just as much as others enjoy those protections who are recorded as a woman at birth”, she said.Therefore the legislation created “a fundamental right and a human right to be recognised in one’s acquired gender”.Crawford denied the document was “some legal fiction”, as described in court yesterday by For Women Scotland’s KC Aiden O’Neill. She said it had “far-reaching consequences”, not just for an individual’s recognition in state records but also their relationship to private organisations.
Also speaking for Scottish ministers, Lesley Irvine highlighted the “onerous conditions” which have to be met to obtain a GRC, including a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and proof of living in the preferred gender for two years. She said that it amounted to a “fundamental change of status until Read More
