A new gender identity law has been passed in the parliament of Scotland to make gender self-identification in legal documents even simpler.

As many as nine members of the ruling Scottish National Party voted against the party’s proposed law, but they could not stop a 86-39 victory of the reform, which also received the support of Greens, Labour Party and Liberals.

Teenagers aged 16 or more will now be able to self-declare their gender and change their sex in official documents.

A medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria will no longer be needed. This was a central demand of LGBTQI groups, who aim to “depathologise” the self-determination of gender identity and expression.  

Now people identifiying as transgender will only have to demonstrate they lived in their acquired identity for 3 months – instead of 2 years, as the 2009 stated.

IDs to “reflect who they are”

In a heated debate which ended at 1am on Friday 23 December, the manager of Trans rights in Scotland, Vic Valentine, said the new law means that trasngender people would be able to show a birth certificate “that reflects who they are”.

According to UK broadcaster BBC, efforts by some parliamentarians to keep the minimum age at 18 were voted down, as was an attempt by a Conservative MP to prevent convicted sex offenders being allowed to change their gender.

The new law could now potentially be could be blocked by the United Kingdom government. Women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said they will look into aspects of the text which could collide with the Equality Act.

Outside Holyroad, as the Scottish Parliament is known, trans activists demonstrated in favour of the law. At a demonstration by opponents, the husband of well-known author and feminist J.K. Rowling read out a letter in which she defined the bill as “the single biggest rollback of women’s rights in our lifetimes”.

Evangelicals

Christians also criticised the law. The UK director of the Evangelical Alliance (EAUK), Peter Lynas, said it was “an assault on truth” because it “ignores the evidence of the Cass Review, puts woman and children at risk, puts ideology before evidence and is at odds with reality and popular opinion”.

“Trans people have rights, but not rights like this to self-identify - no one has that right”, Lynas added.

The trans trend in Europe

Nine other European countries have already adopted self-declaration systems for so-called legal gender recognition, including Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland.

Spain also passed before Christmas a very controversial gender self-identification law. It also gvies rights to minors, and demands schools, media and businesses to promote trans rights, punishing with fines of up to 150,000 euros those who are found to be exercising discrimination in the new legal scenario.