The Catholic bishops of Scotland have aligned themselves with women’s groups and JK Rowling in urging MSPs to throw out a Bill to permit sex change by self-declaration.
They say they are “gravely concerned” that the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill will pose a threat to women and girls from predatory males who self-identify as female and who will be able to access women-only safe spaces.
The bishops said that the proposals in the Bill were “unsafe and likely to harm young people”.
They are also worried about the harassment and persecution of people opposed to the imposition of the “ideology of gender” by the Scottish government and the erosion and abnegation of their authentic freedoms.
They said: “We urge members of the Scottish Parliament to uphold these freedoms and to oppose this Bill.”
The appeal of the bishops comes ahead of a crucial Stage 3 vote at Holyrood where the Bill can be amended and passed.
The Bill seeks to make it easier for people to change their genders by scrapping a legal requirement for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria followed by a waiting period of two years before obtaining a gender recognition certificate.
It will allow people to change their legal gender within six months by simply self-identifying with a new gender of their choice. It will also lower the age of gender transition from 18 to 16 years.
The Scottish bishops said: “Children must be protected from making permanent legal declarations about their gender which may lead to irreversible elective interventions, including surgery.
“Lowering the minimum age from 18 to 16 and introducing a system of self-identification will put more children and young people on this path.”
They continued: “Women’s organisations also have recorded their own concerns about the Bill, principally that the proposed reforms will increase risks to the safety of women and girls by men self-declaring as female and accessing women-only spaces.
“There are also real concerns that the proposals will mean a female healthcare practitioner will no longer be guaranteed for women and girls, even when it is requested.”
The bishops added that “the freedom to hold the reasonable view that sex and gender are given and immutable” should be upheld especially for those who work in “education, healthcare, the prison service, or as marriage celebrants who, from both reasonable and religious perspectives, hold an understanding of marriage as a union between one man and one woman”.
The Bill is also opposed by Westminster on the grounds that the changes proposed will reach the whole of the UK and not just effect Scotland.
The Government has threatened to take legal action against the Scottish Parliament, while Kemi Badenoch, the Minister for Women and Equalities, is expected to make an imminent appeal for the legislation to be delayed.
An opinion poll published in mid-December by YouGov on behalf of The Times found that 66 per cent of voters also opposed the Bill while just 21 per cent of people in the survey said they supported it.
The Bill is widely opposed by women’s groups and many feminists, including JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series who has described it as “the biggest assault on the rights of Scottish women and girls” in her lifetime.
They have argued that the Bill would make it easier for male sexual predators to have access to women and girls and that it would also encourage such individuals to visit or reside in Scotland.
The Scottish government has dismissed their concerns, saying in a statement that “similar legislation is already in place in countries across the world, with no evidence to suggest that sex attackers are attracted to these countries as a result.”
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