Scotland’s Parliament passed a bill last week that, if enacted, will allow citizens as young as 16 to be legally recognized as transgender without requiring a gender dysphoria medical diagnosis.

Known as the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) bill, the measure was passed in a vote of 86 to 69. The proposed legislation still awaits royal assent.

The bill makes Scotland the first region of the United Kingdom to approve self-identification, or self-declaration, for changing gender. 

Scottish lawmakers say the legislation is needed because it will make the lives of the country’s transgender community easier. 

But the bill, which was backed by the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) and other parties in the Parliament, except for the Conservatives, was opposed by some women’s rights campaigners, who say the changes could pose a threat to the safety of women and girls. It could make it easier for predatory males to access single-sex spaces, such as bathrooms, the campaigners say.  

In London, Britain’s Conservative government has also expressed concerns about the safety of women and children and, and is threatening to block the new gender recognition legislation. 

According to its official overview, the legislation seeks to change the standards for Scottish citizens to acquire a “gender recognition certificate,” a legal document stating that “a person’s gender is not the gender that they were assigned at birth, but is their ‘acquired gender.’”

Not only would the proposed legislation lower the age for obtaining a gender recognition certificate from 18 to 16, it would also remove the requirement of a medical diagnosis for gender dysphoria, and would reduce the time a person has to live as their preferred gender identity from the current standard of two years to three months.

“We share the concerns that many people have regarding certain aspects of this Bill, and in particular the safety issues for women and children,” Alister Jack, the secretary of state for Scotland, said in a statement, according to The Telegraph.

“We will look closely at that, and also the ramifications for the 2010 Equality Act and other U.K. wide legislation, in the coming weeks—up to and including a Section 35 order stopping the Bill going for Royal Assent if necessary.”

The reform bill was introduced in March to amend the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, which laid out the standards for which a person could be legally recognized as trans-identified.

“There have been international developments since the 2004 Act including the reclassification of gender identity health by the World Health Organization from ‘Mental and Behavioral Disorders’ to ‘Conditions related to sexual health,’” states a policy memorandum in support of the bill.

“Since Argentina became the first country to do so in 2012, a number of other countries have moved to systems of legal gender recognition primarily based on an applicant’s declaration of their gender, including Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, France, Ireland, Malta and Norway.” 

 
Above:[Interior of the Scottish Parliament.]

Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy Stock Photo