Nearly six months after the Supreme Court delivered its landmark verdict on the definition of a woman, the Scottish Government has released long-awaited guidelines instructing schools to adopt single-sex toilets and changing rooms.
Previously, pupils at Scottish schools were permitted to use the bathrooms of their identified gender, but on Monday SNP ministers published the refreshed ‘Transgender Children and Young People: Guidance for schools’ instructing learning centres to adhere to April’s Supreme Court Decision.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said the Scottish Government had made clear its acceptance of the far-reaching court decision and “has been taking forward the detailed work that is necessary as a consequence of the ruling”.
She said that to protect the rights of all young people in the education system: “We have brought forward updates to guidance to provide clarity and confidence to teachers and staff as they work to support the mental, physical and emotional health of transgender young people in our schools following recent significant legal and policy developments.”
She added work is “ongoing” to update guidance across the public sector in the wake of April’s decision.
The updated school guidelines confirm separate toilets for boys and girls at primary and secondary schools and clarify“ for the purposes of this guidance the term ‘biological sex ’is used to mean sex recorded at birth,” though “young people and their families may prefer to use other terms.”
However, ministers insist that schools must take into consideration the individual needs of pupils identifying as transgender and no advice is given to inform parents if a child is identifying as the opposite sex at school.
The document states: “Parents and carers play an important part in a young person’s life and in any decision making process, particularly for those in a primary school setting.
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Schools in Scotland will now have to adopt single sex toilets
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“Where possible, consider the best approach to involving and including the young person in any decision making.”
Up to seven Scottish councils have one or more schools with no single sex spaces after buying in to Nicola Sturgeon’s gender self-ID policy, three of which are found in Aberdeenshire.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, the last remnants of Nicola Sturgeon’s gender self-ID framework in the public sector are now being dismantled.
For Women Scotland, who won their Supreme Court battle against the Scottish Government to define a woman by biological sex at birth, has grown increasingly frustrated at the Scottish Government’s slow reaction to the court ruling.
Pro-trans protesters took to the street following the Supreme Court ruling
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On September 4, a coalition of women’s rights campaigners protested outside Holyrood calling on the Scottish Government to speed up the distribution of updated guidance for single sex spaces in schools, council buildings and the Scottish prison service.
Earlier this month, GB News sat down with For Women Scotland co-director Susan Smith for a look back at the group’s journey and a post mortem of gender self-ID in Scotland, beginning with the molasses-slow reaction to issuing refreshed guidance.
“The government is trying to be very hands-off about all the things they are responsible for and they’ve been trying to push those decisions onto other organisations,” said Susan, adding they were “washing their hands of any responsibility”.
As the group’s supporters chanted “women won’t wait” outside the parliament building, she explained: “We say we’re fed up of waiting, for them just to pull these things and say ‘these are plainly unlawful and we cannot carry on sending these out to schools, councils and the prison service and telling them to adhere to policies which fly in the face of the Supreme Court ruling’.”
The Education Secretary has blamed the Equalities and Human Rights Committee for the slow redistribution of trans guidance for schools, but For Women Scotland says it is now “imperative” the SNP moves quickly on to refreshing outdated policies in the Scottish prison service.
The imprisonment of trans double-rapist Isla Bryson - previously Adam Graham - in female lock-up HMP Cornton Vale was met with significant national backlash, further inflaming tensions around the public debate on gender identity and self-ID.
Bryson was soon after moved out of the women’s prison, just two weeks before Nicola Sturgeon moved out of Bute House, though the former First Minister maintains the ferocity of the backlash had little to do with her decision to resign.