In recent months, Anas Sarwar should have been challenging the Scottish Government, not meekly falling into line, writes Euan McColm.
When MSPs from across the political spectrum lined up behind the Scottish Government’s plan to make it easier for people to change their gender in law, they basked in the praise of activists and publicly-funded campaign groups.
They considered themselves righteous champions of fairness and equality, and denounced their critics as bigoted and out of touch.
Now, those same politicians dance on the heads of pins, squirming and avoiding questions about this most controversial of issues.
After the case of Isla Bryson – who, as Adam Graham, committed two rapes before being sent to Cornton Vale women’s prison – validated the concerns of those who suggested the introduction of self-ID might be abused by predatory men, our senior MSPs look increasingly foolish.
We have witnessed the remarkable spectacle of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon undermining the foundation of her self-ID policy – that people are who they say they are – by refusing to say whether she considers Bryson/Graham a man or a woman. And viewers of BBC Scotland’s Debate Night will have heard Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton – a most passionate advocate of self-ID – say he was “not sufficiently qualified” to say whether the double rapist was male or female.
Cole-Hamilton – in words that would haunt anybody in possession of a conscience – also said that continuing to discuss the case was “triggering” for every survivor of sexual abuse in Scotland. So, shut up, women.
Notable for his silence on this issue is Labour’s Anas Sarwar who, it seems, would very much like not to discuss his support for reform of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA). Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise us. After all, Sarwar has made a catastrophic political mistake.
Throughout the debate in advance of the government’s bill – now blocked by Westminster over fears it negatively impacts on the UK-wide Equality Act, which enables the establishment of single-sex spaces – Sarwar ignored the concerns of colleagues who saw the gaping holes in the legislation.
When Sarwar should have been challenging the Scottish Government over reforms which were legally unworkable, he meekly fell into line. This political cowardice was helpful neither to transgender people nor to those who felt the legislation went too far.
In purely political terms, Sarwar has blown it. Never in her long and successful career has Nicola Sturgeon appeared more vulnerable. Her obsession with reforming the GRA has likely set her at odds with fellow nationalists and the majority of Scottish voters.
Had the Scottish Labour leader listened to those of his colleagues who saw this mess coming like a steam train, he’d now have been positioning himself as a voice of reason.
Instead, Anas Sarwar is nothing more than a political shield for SNP MSPs who, when challenged on their support for the broken bill, routinely reply that, well, Labour backed it, too.
Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers
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