SNP MSPs will be whipped to vote in favour of gender recognition reforms

I have such admiration for Ash Regan. I wish her resignation was the first sign of the dam breaking but I'm not sure many within the SNP would sacrifice their careers for this... sadly. And as for Nicola's 'If only you'd have come and had a wee chat with me' 😡

I would have been sorely tempted to have asked why they've done a copy and paste job and could they answer with their own opinion with good robust peer reviewed studies/links to back them up as your research has debunked the suicide stats at the very least 🤔

So, in essence, another woman losing her job, for speaking up.

Why am I not surprised.
But well done Ash.

Sturgeon pretending like she didn't realise there was any controversy at all with this Bill and that absolutely everyone is on board with it. She knew, she just didn't want to listen, and as Ash would have well known, would have dismissed anyone's concerns as 'transphobic' anyway.

This whole thing is kind of nuts! Well done Ash.

According to one of my MSPs, any concerns are based on misunderstandings.(Green)

It says at the bottom that she raised this in a letter in 2019 with other MSPs.

Oh, essentially cross posted with @Signalbox !

Wow, full of admiration for Ash. I can't believe the First Minister's response to her resignation (paraphrasing) "you've never raised this with me before" - well who feels safe to raise this sort of thing in their workplace?!

"I note that at no stage have you approached me - or indeed the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice - to raise your concerns about the Gender Recognition Reform Bill or the vote this evening."

Presumably Ash was aware that her concerns would have been dismissed as "transphobic" so there was not much point in approaching NS.

Oh Wow. Good for Ash Regan.

Go Ash!

WOAH!!!!!!!

'In her resignation letter, she wrote: "I have considered the issue of Gender Recognition Reform very carefully over some time.

"I have concluded that my conscience will not allow me to vote with the government at the Stage 1 of the Bill this afternoon.

"Consequently, I am writing to resign my position in the Scottish Government as Minister for Community Safety.'

A woman of principles. Thank you.

Community Safety Minister Ash Regan has just resigned.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/snp-minister-ash-regan-resigns-28340482

The dam is breaking.

Boldly going forwards cos we can't find reverse....

There's reality on the starboard bow, scrape it off Nic!

Rushing only headlong onwards. This is what 'progressive' means!

And note the contrast in the rush to implement this compared to the ScotGov comments about the Cass Review in the Express today:

”The Scottish Government has said services have a year to consider the findings of the research from the Cass Review that led to some gender identity clinics being closed down in England. The move has been criticised as too little too late for kids already in the system.”

www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/childrens-commissioner-accused-risking-health-28334065

No sense of urgency there, eh?

I think you're right, Amaryllis.

Pam Gosal's article emphasised legislation must not be rushed; as do those advocating 'watchful waiting' wrt children with gender incongruence. Women have been asking for time to be spent discussing, questioning, examining.

A feature of the arguments of most people advocating for Self ID is urgency- this has to happen nownownow, time is running out, we can't hang about to examine it too closely, get a move on, sign it in, quick quick quick. This echoes the time-sensitive arguments wrt puberty blockers - we can't wait to find out whether or not they're right for children, they must be given to children as soon as puberty starts to show - actually now WPATH have removed any age limits, I believe. Etc.

High pressure tactics.

Oh my god, all those crumpled up liberal faces quoting entirely made up statistics. How to show you care!

Delays increasing public awareness of what it means and giving time for people to start pushing back.

Democracy is now transphobic.

As well as being female and wanting to safeguard children.

To be honest - I think the Greens and SNP want this over and done because it's so divisive and getting more so. One of the Greens sent me a pious email that delays were increasing transphobia but I think the bigger problem is that (with all the recent bad news) delay increases the division in their own parties. While the Libs and Labs don't want an obvious split in their own parties either and a whip gives their dissenters (and anyone who changes their mind) plausible deniability when there's an election. They probably hope they can edit the worst bits out with amendments later on and we can all forget and move on.

Sorry, debate from 2, not sure when the vote is.

live online from 2pm. This is Stage 1, there are 2 and 3 to go through and then I think usually a wait for it to become law.