Scotland leader said Tuesday she will take the British government to court over its decision to block a Scottish law that makes it easier for people to change their gender on official documents.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Conservative U.K. government was making a “profound mistake” by vetoing the Gender Recognition Reform Bill passed by the Scottish parliament last month.
“It will inevitably end up in court,” Sturgeon told the BBC. “The Scottish government will vigorously defend this legislation.”
Hailed as a landmark by transgender rights activists, the bill would allow people age 16 or older in Scotland to change the gender designation on their identity documents by self-declaration, removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
It would also cut the time trans people must live in a different expressed gender before the change is legally recognised, from two years to three months for adults and to six months for people ages 16 and 17.
The legislation sets Scotland apart from the rest of the United Kingdom, where a medical diagnosis is needed before individuals can transition for legal purposes.
Scotland is part of the U.K. but, like Wales and Northern Ireland, has its own semi-autonomous government with broad powers over areas including health care.
The British government used a rarely invoked power on Monday to block the law on the grounds that it could undermine U.K.-wide equality legislation that guarantees women and girls access to single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and shelters.
Opponents of the bill have argued that gender self-recognition could allow predatory men to gain access to spaces intended for women, a claim dismissed as scaremongering by supporters of the legislation.
Alister Jack, the U.K. government minister responsible for Scotland, said the government was concerned about “adverse effects” on “single-sex clubs, associations and schools, and protections such as equal pay.”
“The bill also risks creating significant complications from having two different gender recognition regimes in the U.K. and allowing more fraudulent or bad faith applications,” he told lawmakers.
Proof of how heated and divisive the issue can be came during a bad-tempered debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday. Conservative and Scottish National Party lawmakers traded jibes, and opposition Labour legislator Rosie Duffield was heckled by her own party colleagues after praising the government’s action.
