[Cherie]

Nicola Sturgeon has argued the law on the definition of a woman may need to be changed to accommodate trans people after complaining that a Supreme Court ruling had been “massively over-interpreted”.

The former first minister did not dispute that the court was correct that the definition of woman in the Equality Act 2010 was based on biological sex.

Nicola Sturgeon has argued the law on the definition of a woman may need to be changed to accommodate trans people after complaining that a Supreme Court ruling had been “massively over-interpreted”.

The former first minister did not dispute that the court was correct that the definition of woman in the Equality Act 2010 was based on biological sex.

But she argued that this could be changed to give trans people access to female-only areas as it was for politicians “to decide what the law should be or has to be.”

She said the “law has to change” if trans people’s lives become “almost impossible” and cited comments from Baroness Hale, the first female president of the Supreme Court.

Lady Hale said last week that “there’s nothing in that judgment that says that you can’t have gender neutral loos” and Ms Sturgeon argued that this showed that the ruling had been “massively over-interpreted.”

The former SNP leader made the comments this weekend at the How the Light Gets In festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, adding that she had received “more misogynistic abuse as a result of this issue than any other”.

Ms Sturgeon said this was “ironic” but pledged to “always” be an ally to trans people “no matter how difficult that might be.”

But For Women Scotland (FWS), the feminist group that won the Supreme Court case against the SNP government, said the real misreading of the law had come from “trans activists who have spun the most outrageous interpretations.”

Ms Sturgeon’s government tried the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill, which would have allowed biological men to change legal gender by simply signing a declaration.

The legislation was passed at Holyrood but vetoed by the UK Government over concerns it undermined women’s safe spaces.

But it has emerged that swathes of Scotland’s public sector adopted self-ID all the same, allowing trans people access to female toilets and changing rooms.

Experts have warned these practices will have to be scrapped following the Supreme Court’s ruling in April that the definition of a woman is based on biological sex, and does not include trans women.


The brass neck of this woman who is basically a thief, defies belief