UK Blocks New Gender Bill, Raising Tensions Over Scottish Independence

The United Kingdom's government has blocked a new gender bill that would have allowed trans people in Scotland to change their genders legally without requiring a medical diagnosis, a controversial decision that raises tensions over Scottish independence.

Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, called the intervention by the UK government a "full-frontal attack on our democratically elected Scottish Parliament and its ability to make its own decisions on devolved matters."

Scotland's New Gender Bill

On the other hand, the minister representing Scotland in the UK government, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, on Monday announced that Westminster took the unusual step of blocking the bill from becoming law. He argued that the reason behind the decision was that it was concerned about the impact of the legislation on UK-wide equality laws.

Lawmakers designed the gender bill to make it easier for people in Scotland to legally change their genders. With the system currently in place, trans people need to pass a number of challenges in order to change their gender marker in their legal documents, as per CNN.

One of the requirements is getting a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which is a condition that is defined as the distress caused by the discrepancy between a person's body and their gender identity. They are then mandated to prove that they have been living in their chosen gender for two years and must at least be 18 years old.

The new rules that officials have proposed will drop the medical diagnosis requirement altogether and will instead move to self-determination. Furthermore, the waiting time would be cut from two years down to only six months and the age limit was to be lowered to 16 years old.

For a long time, campaigners have argued that the current process that trans people need to go through is overly bureaucratic, expensive, and intrusive. The Scottish government also held two large public consultations on the issue before proposing the new, simpler rules.

Argument Over Scottish Independence

The blocking of the new gender bill also marks the first time that a Scottish law has been obstructed for impacting UK-wide laws. Sturgeon added that Scottish ministers would continue to "defend" the bill and warned that if the veto succeeded, it would be the "first of many," according to BBC.

Scotland's government is expected to legally challenge the ruling, through a judicial review, but is currently waiting for more details from UK ministers. Sturgeon's administration believes that the current process causes distress to an already marginalized and vulnerable minority group.

The Scottish National Party-led government in Edinburgh argued that the legal changing of genders positively affects the lives of transgender people. They added that this is done by allowing them to get official documents that correspond to their gender identities.

However, opposition lawmakers countered by claiming that the proposed law risks allowing predatory men to gain access to spaces that were intended for women. This includes shelters for domestic abuse survivors. Others have argued that the minimum age set forth in the new gender bill should remain at 18 years old, said ABC News.