The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday April 22 2025 #Gender

The Scotsman

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00:00Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Video Bulletin for this Tuesday.

00:03My name's Dale Miller.

00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by political correspondent Rachel Amory

00:09coming to us live from the Scottish Parliament.

00:12Rachel, we'll get to talking about a big day in Scottish politics in a moment,

00:17the resumption of Holyrood proceedings after recess for the Easter period.

00:24The front page of today's Scotsman, though, firstly.

00:26And hard not to lead on the death of the Pope, referred to by former US President Joe Biden

00:34as the People's Pope.

00:36Pope Francis, he was praised from King Charles III, who we know met him alongside Camilla

00:43in recent weeks while they were out in Italy, to Sir Keir Starmer and members of the Catholic

00:51Church and the religious community on a whole, paid tribute and mourned the death of Pope

00:56Francis on Monday morning.

00:59The funeral details of the Pope have been announced that will take place this Saturday

01:03at 10 a.m. local time.

01:05You can follow scotsman.com for all the latest.

01:08We will be covering details and some of these images from the funeral on Saturday.

01:14Away from that, though, Rachel, gender.

01:17It was the big talking point of last week with that Supreme Court ruling that had ramifications

01:24that we're expecting to continue for weeks to come.

01:28But this afternoon, we're going to hear an official position from the Scottish Government

01:32via a ministerial statement.

01:34Sorry, just talk us through the implications of that.

01:37Yes, ever since the Supreme Court ruling last week, where the judges said that the terms

01:43women and sex in the Equality Act refers to biological sex, and that the Scottish Government

01:48was incorrect on its guidance that it said that trans women could be classed as women for

01:53some pieces of legislation.

01:55So ever since that statement in the Supreme Court, we've had various calls for the Government

01:58to give an official reflection, set out what they are doing in response to this, and particularly

02:04setting out what their guidance to public bodies on single-sex spaces is, and how that is going

02:08to change on the back of the Supreme Court ruling.

02:11We've also had various calls for a few different people in the SNP to apologise, not least First

02:18Minister John Swinney and former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

02:22So as you were saying, we're now going to be getting this statement.

02:24It's going to be coming from Social Justice Secretary, Shirley Ann Somerville, we believe.

02:28And this is also the first time they've had a proper chance to do this, because it has been

02:32Easter recesses of the first day back, first day back at school for all the NSPs today.

02:37So yeah, we're expecting the Government to reflect on the Court ruling, to set out what

02:42they are now doing in response to that, and what sort of legislation they're looking at potentially

02:46changing, and what guidance they're now having to look at as well.

02:50There may be a bit more, I think some of the opposition parties might be expecting more

02:54than they were going to get from this statement.

02:56I think there's some opposition parties that are asking for complete clarity and details

03:02on exactly what is going to happen, and this apology as well, probably aren't going to

03:06get as far as that.

03:07We are probably going to see more of, we are looking at this, we're intending to do this,

03:11we're not going to see much of the concrete, this is what we have changed in the past few

03:15days, because it has been quite a new ruling, and as I said, it has been recessed as well.

03:20So perhaps maybe sort of tapered expectations on this, because I think a lot of people are expecting

03:25a lot of things, and it probably won't be as much as that as we get.

03:29But we'll certainly see what the government are saying as their first official reaction

03:32to the Supreme Court verdict.

03:35I suspect regardless, Rachel, that this isn't going to go away as a talking point for the

03:40Scottish Government and for John Sweeney.

03:42So Keith Starmer made his first public comments on the Supreme Court ruling earlier this morning,

03:47and he was pretty unequivocal about what the Supreme Court ruling meant.

03:53Yes, again, it's the first day back for Westminster as well.

03:56So again, the first time UK ministers in Westminster have been able to have official chance to give

04:01their reaction to this.

04:03So he was saying that it's good that we now have clarity on the law, and it's now that

04:07these lawmakers and legislation makers have clarity on exactly what single sex base, for

04:11example, means.

04:13And also said that his definition is now an adult female, and that he is pleased to see

04:18that this is now being cleared up by the courts.

04:20So we're now seeing a bit more comment coming out of Westminster as well.

04:23But of course, this ruling was against the Scottish Government.

04:26It was very much aimed at Scottish legislation.

04:29It's going to be very interesting to see if what comes out of Hollywood today is going

04:32to match what has come out of Westminster this morning or not.

04:35And Rachel, it's important to note that there were demonstrations across the country,

04:40including here in Scotland across the weekend for those that feel the trans community has

04:47been particularly hard done by with this ruling.

04:51There were attendees from across the spectrum at some of those demonstrations.

04:57Green MSP Maggie Chapman was at one on the weekend, and some comments that she made at

05:03that protest have angered a few.

05:06Yeah, so she was attending one of these protests in Aberdeen at the weekend.

05:09She has been a very outspoken ally of the trans community throughout this whole debate,

05:14going back to the gender reform and gender recognition bill as well.

05:18Now, she was making comments at this protest saying that the ruling by the Supreme Court

05:23is bigoted, and a few other words that she used as well.

05:28This has been criticized quite heavily by others in the Scottish Parliament because this is not

05:32a political stance, this is very much the rule of law.

05:35So, for example, if you look at many in the SNP so far, while they supported gender reform,

05:39for example, back in 2022, they're now saying that they accept the ruling because it's the

05:44highest court in the land.

05:45So I think the fact that this Green MSP is sort of hitting out at the court in this manner

05:50has angered quite a few people in the Scottish Parliament.

05:53This even calls for her to resign her position on Hollywood's Equality Committee.

05:57So it'll be interesting to see if we hear any more about that today as well.

06:01I know former SNP MP Joanna Cherry was very strong on this.

06:07We obviously know she comes directly from a legal background that she was among those calling

06:12for Maggie Chapman to resign from her position.

06:15You can read that story and you'll be able to read all the very latest on the ministerial

06:20statement in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment at scotsman.com throughout this afternoon.

06:27Rachel, thanks to you for bringing us up to speed on all the latest.

06:30You can follow us on all social media channels and please go out and pick up a copy of the

06:37Scotsman tomorrow.

06:38We'll have all the very latest on this statement and all the latest on plans for the funeral of

06:44Pope Francis.

06:45Thanks for joining us.

06:46We'll see you next time.

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