HANDOUT – Overview of Parliament during the gender recognition reform debate. In Scotland, Parliament has voted to relax rules on gender reassignment for trans people. Photo: Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament/PA Media/dpa – ATTENTION: For editorial use only in connection with current reporting and only with full attribution of the above credit
As reported by the PA news agency, the highly controversial bill was approved on Thursday afternoon after a long debate with a majority of 86 votes, 39 MPs spoke out against it.
Trans people or transgender people are people who do not feel they belong to the gender they were assigned at birth.
The project by Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon from the Scottish National Party SNP had triggered a fierce controversy. Critics like Harry Potter author JK Rowling fear that men could take advantage of the simplified regulations to enter areas reserved for women, such as women’s changing rooms or toilets, for sexual motives. The dispute did not spare Sturgeon’s own party either. Supporters and opponents of the bill had demonstrated during the week before and in the Scottish regional parliament in Edinburgh.
A vote was actually planned for Wednesday, but a plethora of amendments threw up the schedule. The new regulation eliminates the obligation for a medical report as a prerequisite for changing the gender entry. The minimum age for such an application will be lowered from 18 to 16. The length of time a trans person must have lived in their new gender role will be reduced from two years to three months.
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill was considered the most controversial legislative project since the Scottish regional parliament was founded almost 24 years ago.
(SDA)