Urgent action for those in Scotland

[SusanSmithFWS]

The amazing Johann Lamont has put in an amendment to the forensic medical services bill. This is a really important piece of legislation which seeks to make the process easier for rape victims and we support it. We are concerned, however, that although the women who testified that access to a female examiner was the most important concern, the bill still refers to the gender - instead of sex - of the examiner.

Sex, unlike gender, is defined in the Equality Act and there is provision for recruitment under schedule 9. We believe that a small change will ensure that there is no ambiguity.

We would urge anyone from Scotland to please write to all eight of their MSPs and ask them to support the motion.

As Susan Dalgety reported in the Scotsman:
Her amendment may be only six words long – “for the word ‘gender’ substitute ‘sex’” – but it gets to the heart of the current debate about who counts as a woman.

“Women should be able to choose the sex of the person who conducts the investigation,” Johann told me last night. “This is a key test for the Parliament, which is committed to rooting action in the understanding of experience. Women courageously and powerfully spoke up so that others might fare better than them.

“The amendment is tiny but would be a huge step in listening to survivors. The committee was convinced. The Parliament should be too.”

Six words can make a world of difference.

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/transgender-debate-msps-must-stand-womens-sex-based-rights-key-vote-bill-help-rape-victims-susan-dalgety-3057640

@GreyishDays I just wrote a very short one saying that I urged them to support the amendment to the Forensic Medical Services Bill (Para 28) and a bit about how important it was to not have people being traumatised further, when they specifically want to see medical staff of their own sex.

Then I linked to the Scotsman and Herald articles for background and stuck an extra please at the end 😅

There's also more info and links in this FWS blog post. You can pick out certain sentences to add to your email or include a few links so it's not like you're pulling stuff out of thin air.

Mine was very short, the email equivalent of cat's bum mouth, I think. I practically put a full stop between each word. With a link to the Herald article and the quote about women wanting female HCPs.

I've had positive responses from my two Tory MSPs (regional). Nothing from any of the others.

1/8 replies here though feels pretty rubbish. :(

Mine are 5 Tories ( did not actually realise that ) 2 Labour and a Green on the regional MSPs plus a Lib Dem constituency MSP.

So from the sounds of it the Tories are supporting the amendment anyway, they maybe just cba all replying.

Assuming Mr Green MP might be a lost cause and maybe the Lib Dem unless they've seen sense. And the 1 Labour replied saying he's supporting it, but I don't know if they all will.

Thanks all of you. I’ll put something together tomorrow morning.

Rape Crisis Scotland are absolutely trashing any credibility that remained with their haughty dismissal of what they themselves told the committee about what survivors told them matters most.

The volume of men now also raging about this shows that the incredulity over this nonsense is getting out more & more with every new stunt being pulled. But this really is the lowest they've gone & it's unforgivable.

The CEO of Rape Crisis Scotland has written in the Scotsman:

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/forensic-medical-services-bill-important-step-forward-treatment-rape-survivors-scotland-gender-row-misses-point-sandy-brindley-3061543

Johann Lamont MSP has this week lodged an amendment to the bill, to change the reference from “gender” to “sex”. It is not clear what she is trying to achieve with this – some commentators see this as a development which would exclude trans women doctors from carrying out forensic examinations.

If this is the intent of the amendment, it will not achieve this. No concerns about the use of the term gender were raised when the original bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament in December 2013; the terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably. Replacing one word with another will have no impact on the availability of female doctors.

The amendment misses the point – the key issue facing women in Scotland accessing forensic examinations is not transwomen carrying out these examinations. As far as we know there are no trans examiners in Scotland.

I am so, so disappointed in them.

a development which would exclude trans women doctors from carrying out forensic examinations

Yes, indeed, I wish to exclude transwomen doctors from carrying out examinations when traumatised women have specifically and explicitly requested a female. You disingenuous finks.

And it's not missing the point, if the bill uses gender then examiners will also necessarily use gender. This means those much needed female examiners will actually be identifies-as-a-woman examiners. And because it all uses gender not sex the sex based exemptions will not be able to used and refusing an intimate examination from a TW will probably be a hate crime too

I decided then that even if the ship went down I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try to do something to stop it, no matter how small and insignificant. If that means my MSPs get sick of seeing my name so be it
Yes I decided this is the only way I will be able to look my daughters in the eye!

I have a positive reply from my Labour MSP yay!

So far only one Tory has replied (saying he supports the amendment).

We all know who this is about. Don't we. That prostate-haver (to use the permitted term) who works in the women's rape crisis centre and fancies themself as an SNP MSP via the All Women Shortlist.

So it looks like any positive replies so far have come from either Labour or Conservative MSPs...

Zero replies for me.

Wow you must be on the naughty list ArabellaScott!

I've only had one actual reply. I seem to be routinely ignored by SNP and Greens.

Two replies here this morning. One from my Tory list MSP, assuring me that he will vote for the amendment and deploring the SNP record on justice.

The other from my constituency SNP MSP saying that he will keep my comments in mind. Which is better than a total nope.

I presume I'm on the 'irritating women ' list, Nonny.

I've no advancement on 2 replies, both Labour & both supporting the amendment.

I've got SNP, Tory, LibDem & greens. I know the Tories are saying they'll all vote for it, but the rest I'll be watching to see how they vote given they've not been arsed to reply.

Positive reply from one of my list Conservative MSPs - they will be supporting the amendment. Will be interested in hearing what my Labour MSP says. I wrote to him a few years ago, and he was utterly dismissive of my concerns.

I’ve emailed all of mine and had one quick positive response from a conservative one.

I've had a reply from the fudmeister.

I didn't think his reply could affect me, as I know he won't support the amendment. But I'm fucking livid now.

Unsurprisingly my Green was a no, and sent a lengthy and patronising email about how I misunderstand the purpose of the amendment, and that it was nothing to do with the GRA (the GRA was not mentioned in my email). Also chucked in a snide comment about how I was motivated by views on other issues.

@TheShadowyFeminist

I've had a reply from the fudmeister.

I didn't think his reply could affect me, as I know he won't support the amendment. But I'm fucking livid now.

I suspect we had the same email

twitter.com/campervanwoman/status/1336635685076398082?s=19

Now Rape Crisis are saying if "sex" is used it might confuse women into believing they are guaranteed a female doctor...

Thank you for your email regarding an amendment to the Forensic Medical Services Bill lodged by Johann Lamont, to be debated on Thursday.

I have discussed this amendment with colleagues and with relevant organisations such as Rape Crisis Scotland, who have strongly advised that it should not be supported. They are of the view that the legal effect of the amendment, if it was passed, would be non-existent. However they are also clear in their view that the problem which needs to be addressed is the lack of women recruited to carry out medical examinations covered by the Bill.

Rape Crisis Scotland recently set out their views on this amendment in this article:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/forensic-medical-services-bill-important-step-forward-treatment-rape-survivors-scotland-gender-row-misses-point-sandy-brindley-30615433_

The original legislation which the new Bill related to was passed in 2014. By 2017 women were around 30% of the available forensic medical examiners, and this figure has risen to around 60%. However this needs to continue to rise if we are to ensure that survivors of sexual assault who make a request can be seen by a woman examiner, without delay. Making a single word change to the legislation about the request will not solve this problem, and appears to be motivated by views on other issues.

There has also been a certain amount of inaccurate information circulating about this amendment. I have received emails from people who are under the impression that it is an amendment to the Gender Recognition Act, and from those who appear to have been told that passing it would give survivors of sexual assault the right to be seen by a medical examiner of their choice. Neither of these claims is true.

I share the Government's desire to ensure that survivors of sexual assault can have forensic medical examination carried out by a women if this is their preference, but the only way to achieve this is to continue to increase the recruitment of women to this role, as Rape Crisis has made clear.

Yours sincerely,

Patrick Harvie MSP

This was my reply.

What is a woman Patrick?

If the effect of voting for the amendment is "non-existent" why would it hurt to vote for it?

But then it's pretty obvious that he's the witch sniffer and could smell the horror of terf from my email, I would expect nothing less