Swinney’s Government directed Civil Servants to write and introduce a transgender guidance policy for the SNHS-but Civil Servants take instruction from Westminster in matters which impact the UK and a policy outlining a different approach is ready to be introduced in Scotland but Swinney is refusing to accept its introduction overnment refuse to consider its introduction until after the 2026 Scottish G.E. in anticipation he will be returned to Holyrood and form another Government in which case he will “Stonewall” the voters yet again. Scots need to waken up to the threat Sweeney and another SNP Government poses to democracy Get them out.

Events in Scotland

The SNP has admitted that its officials helped write NHS transgender guidance on the use of “preferred” lavatories and changing rooms.

The Scottish Government revealed that its civil servants were part of a policy development group charged with drafting a new “gender transitioning guide” for the NHS.

The guidance warned that telling a trans person they cannot use their “preferred facilities” could amount to “unlawful discrimination on the grounds of gender reassignment”.

A freedom of information (FoI) request disclosed that the “development process” for the policy involved “subject matter experts” from “both the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland”.

The response refused to disclose the legal basis for the guidance, and did not say whether the experts were affiliated to the trans lobby groups that have previously advised the SNP administration.

Feminist campaigners said the revelation was significant as ministers had been trying to avoid becoming embroiled in the public debate over trans women accessing single-sex spaces.

(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/d30a2c5f8a73c303)

The Equality Act Guidance

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/schedule/3/part/7

12 July 2023: Westminster’s Draft Guidelines for Civil Servants in the UK

New draft policies for civil servants block some trans staff from using single-sex spaces such as toilets, and force staff to accept transphobic views in the workplace.

The document was produced by the Cabinet Office and the Government People Group and outlines proposed changes to the UK Civil Service’s “Gender Identity and Intersex policies”.

The proposals state civil servants should equally recognise “gender critical beliefs” and “gender identity beliefs” – meaning that employees can openly share controversial views on trans lives without being penalised.

Responding, a trans civil servant commented: “My existence is not a belief. How can my safety be just as important as someone’s belief that I shouldn’t be safe? This feels like it was written by someone gender critical, just to give transphobes more clout.”

The leaked document also proposed “changes on access to toilets”, so that only trans people with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) would be permitted to use single-sex facilities.

The leaked bathroom policy reverses existing Civil Service guidance, which states that trans employees are free to have a “flexible” gender expression and to use “any appropriate single sex toilets and other facilities”.

The proposals emphasise that “employees can hold different opinions and beliefs in the workplace” on trans and non-binary lives “as long as they engage in reasoned and rational debate.”

The document explains that “gender critical beliefs are protected” under the Equality Act and continues: “This affords protection from discrimination or harassment suffered as a result of holding that belief and insulting or offensive comments” about a person who holds anti-trans views “can amount to bullying, harassment of or discrimination against that person.”

The Civil Service HR Organisational Policy Team last updated its “Gender Identity and Intersex policies” in 2019. Since then, LGBTQ rights have slid backwards in the UK, with trans rights especially coming under attack from politicians and right-wing journalists.

The leaked document defines being trans as holding a “gender identity belief”, while a “gender critical belief” is the label for people with anti-trans views.

Defining “gender critical belief”, the document states: “A belief that recognises women only as adult human females and men only as adult human males and that it is impossible to change sex which is determined at conception.”

In a training session civil servants were told that using the phrase “adult human female” to define a woman could be seen as transphobic.

Network leaders are collecting internal views on the leaked document and its policies, with senior management meetings planned to occur over the next few weeks.

The Stonewallers are not happy bunnies

Responding to the leaked document, Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, which has advocated for trans rights, said: “These measures are illegal – the Equality Act does not just protect trans people who have a gender recognition certificate”

Robbie de Santos, Stonewall’s director of external affairs, said: “The leaked guidance contains many highly exclusionary and reprehensible suggestions that, combined, would effectively make it impossible for trans people to work in the civil service.

Not only would this guidance be unworkable in practice, but it would be unlikely to stand up to legal challenge, as it brazenly ignores the long-established rules around single-sex spaces as outlined in the UK’s world-class Equality Act.

Everyone should have the same opportunity to thrive in the workplace. But these guidelines would serve only to promote bullying and exclusion of trans people – a group who already experience diminished career prospects.”