I was just watching the BBC evening news, and it would seem a massive political can of worms has just been opened, one which covers two issues I feel very strongly about. The UK government has this evening acted to block the Scottish gender bill. Of course, the Scottish parliament wanted to make the laws around transitioning between genders more lenient: they wanted to lower the age at which one can transition from eighteen to sixteen, and make it so you no longer need a diagnosis of gender dysphoria to transition.

This is a very complex, thorny issue; one which I don’t feel like going into fully tonight. Of course, I wholeheartedly support trans rights. Surely everyone has a right to live however they wish. Yet as I explain here, I think that must come with a few caveats, especially when it comes to concepts like gender. Gender Dysphoria is a real condition and nobody has a right to cast doubt on that. But the key term there is ‘condition’, one which should require a proper medical or psychological diagnosis. If one is no longer necessary, I worry that people will begin to treat gender, being transgender and transitioning much more flippantly, as if it was something one could choose more or less to do on a whim, rather than the intensely uncomfortable often traumatic experience many transgender people currently go through. To a certain extent I think loosening the rules like the Scottish government proposes actually insults transgender people, as it makes transitioning a far less fundamental, life-changing decision, and treats what trans people go through far more flippantly than it deserves.

Thus, as much as it pains me to admit it, I actually side with the UK government (Tories) on this; they were right to block the Scots on this. This is something we need to be very cautious about and to treat with the upmost respect. It would also have opened up a minefield when it came to questions over who is which gender on which side of the border. But did Sturgeon and the SNP know that though, and is it what they were planning? Did they know this change in the law would cause so much trouble? Were they planning on it being blocked in Westminster? They obviously know how socially cautious the Tories usually are upon such matters; they also knew what a minefield it would open up. If that is true, then this bill had nothing to do with transgender rights or liberalising rules, and everything to do with fermenting division between Scotland and the rest of the UK. Now Sturgeon can turn to the Scottish people and say “They blocked our laws! Independence now!” She is effectively using the lives and rights of transgender people to achieve her own nationalist goals, something which I find utterly, utterly disgusting.