When the Scottish Government consulted the public over reforming the GRA, it received a miserable 17,500 responses. There wasn't much publicity given to it at the time and only those in the know spread the word.
The Scottish Governement also took evidence from publicly funded women's organisations who all said that service providers and users were happy with 'inclusive' services. They have never produced their evidence for public viewing. More puzzling is the fact that their findings fly in the face of two previous research projects showing 99% and 95% required single sex provision.
Since the consultation, the political landscape has changed. Public consciousness has been raised about what is at stake. Women have organised to resist the reforms. MSP's like Joan McAlpine have interrogated the data, taken evidence from people who were excluded before and questioned Ministers about such things as recording crime by gender rather than sex. She, unlike her colleagues, was paying attention to the implications of reform.
So now the SNP is in a bind. The consultation and oral evidence said one thing - go ahead, it's progressive, popular, everything will be fine and nothing is at stake. The resistance and alternative narratives coming from public opinion and the new women's organisations points to electoral dangers ahead.