@deadpan
Irvine Welsh has slammed Nicola Sturgeon for trying to shove her trans beliefs “down people’s throats”
Welsh, 66, believes the former first minister was wrong in her attempts to allow people to self-identify as women while she was in government.
The Trainspotting author told The Record: “Sturgeon was out of step on what people felt about trans debate.
“It was a fringe issue on which she had an obscure and contentious view that she tried to force down people’s throats.
He said: “Something that should be a fringe issue was allowed to leak right into the whole independence debate. Basically, it's nothing to do with it at all.
“The idea of the independence movement was to live as an independent nation and be a model of how things should be.
“To do that you need to pick the issues that can pull people along with you, issues that mean people are going to be to your side.
“She was out of step with what people feel and believe in the way that social engineers always are.”
Sturgeon oversaw the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill that was passed by MSPs with cross-party support in December 2022.
The ‘self-ID’ legislation was designed to streamline the process for people to obtain a gender recognition certificate – the official route to changing one’s legally recognised sex.
The Bill was blocked by then-Scottish secretary Alister Jack with a never-used-before Section 35 order.
Then, in April, the UK Supreme Court ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.
The case marked a major victory for gender critical campaigners over the Scottish government.
Welsh said: “I’m against racism and sexism and homophobia and I'm pro-everybody living the life that they want to live, but you should trust people and trust society to get to these conclusions on its own. in their preferred gender.
Last week, she admitted that she was “partly” to blame for the debate on gender recognition laws in Scotland losing "all sense of rationality" and that she should have “taken a step back”.
Welsh said: “You want genuine trans people to live the best possible life that they can.
“But you don't want it to be at the expense of the rights of 50% of the population.
“You want women to determine what they feel is their arena, their spaces.
“I don’t like talking about the trans issue. I’m not transsexual and I’m not a woman.
“But a lot of women who are demonised and called TERFS that I've spoken to have got a lot of time for genuine transsexual people, for men who are genuine about trying to change their sex and live as a woman.
“But what they don't have time for is gender ideologists telling them what they should be thinking about the construct of life, and young kids acting out basically in the way that kids do and the way we all do in different ways to get attention.
“The women's movement is too important for that.
“It's too fundamental because I think the future of humanity is basically the future of women, because I think that the emotional intelligence of women is the thing that's going to save the world.”
After stepping down from her role as first minister, Sturgeon had continued to defend her political legacy, including controversial gender self-ID plans. She also claimed trans rights abuse had forced her to quit as FM.
Asked whether he believes Sturgeon’s views alienated people, Welsh added: “She was the worst of both worlds. She didn’t appease anybody and that was a shame because Sturgeon was one of the better leaders.
“So I don’t know what her legacy is, and I don’t particularly care.
“She was one of the more personable and approachable and real people.