What happened: a campaign for an amendment (which trans folk didn't oppose) to language in a bill (which trans folk didn't propose) which granted no additional rights to refuse trans forensic examiners (who do not exist). A phantom amendment that didn't solve a phantom problem.

For the record, I of course think that someone who has been raped or sexually assaulted should have the right to ask for a different medical examiner for whatever reason. I don't care what that reason is or why: they deserve the maximum safety and support possible.

My reasons for concern around the amendment are (1) it perpetuates the disinformation that sex and gender are distinct in UK law, and that sex is the good thing that normal people have while gender is the bad thing that trans people have;

& (2) the campaign for the amendment, including from politicians, relied on & perpetuated the unfounded prejudice that trans women are a sexual threat to be feared, & that men are pretending to be trans to harm women. Both the disinformation & the prejudice were deliberate.

Usually, the ruling party does not vote to pass empty amendments proposed by opposition parties. The SNP leadership concluded that it did not have the political power to do so in this case, despite acknowledging that the amendment achieved nothing.

And honestly? Given the current situation, I don't think the SNP leadership could have done otherwise. I did not want to deal with the "Woke cult SNP leadership vote to force assault victims to be examined by predatory males" headlines, though the media did its best anyway.

The amendment was a trap the SNP leadership couldn't get out of: support it, to no legal effect, and show politicasl weakness, granting internal and external opponents a win; oppose it, to no legal effect, and be destroyed in the press while perpetuating anti-trans prejudice.

The SNP leadership laid the ground to be caught in this trap, which will not be the only such ploy, by failing to discipline internal transphobia when it had the chance. The movement has been allowed to grow to the point where it can be deployed as a blunt weapon.

Who loses from this disgusting political circus? (1) Trans people, who endure another round of prejudice, this time on a bill that had nothing to do with trans rights; (2) Feminist organisations, bullied of social media by a political faction;

& most importantly, (3) Survivors of sexual violence, some of whom are trans, who were turned into a political football, had their services attacked by campaigners & politicians, had their rights obscured, & had their work for appropriate support hindered. Shame, shame, shame.