News Release – Pre-Action Letter

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Scottish Government Faces Court Action for Redefining “Woman” to Include Men

Re: Gender Representation on Public Boards Act 2018 

A letter has been sent to the government by lawyers acting on behalf of For Women Scotland expressing significant concerns that a law intended to address historical under-representation of women on public boards is fundamentally flawed and that the Scottish Government has exceeded its authority in redefining “woman”. This follows the publication of Statutory Guidance on 29 May 2020.

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Speakers Corner

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Sick and tired of being banned from social media and cancelled for telling the truth, women are taking back the public square, one corner at a time.

At 2pm on Sunday 2nd August, women will gather at the foot of the Mound/Princes St in Edinburgh, reviving the tradition of free speech at the site of the historical Speakers’ Corner.

In the current climate of cancel culture, there is a new urgency to demonstrate the right to free speech. Women will describe how they have been harassed, threatened, silenced and fired for daring to define themselves.

Social distancing will be strictly observed and guest speakers will also be live streamed on For Women Scotland YouTube for those who prefer to stay at home.

After the live stream ends, all women are invited to speak for approximately 2 minutes.

Hate Crime Bill – Call for Views

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The National Secular Society has some excellent guidance on how to submit a response on the Hate Crime Bill. They have concentrated on concerns regarding free speech with respect to religion or belief – but of course, the proposed law also seriously endangers our ability to speak up about women’s rights, oppose reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, and question the concept of gender identity.

The Hate Crime Bill and Public Order (Scotland) Bill can be found here, and information on how to submit your views to the Justice Committee is here.

Our full submission is here.

We have called for the characteristic “sex” to be added to Part 1 (aggravated offences) of the Bill and outlined how Part 2 (stirring up hatred) would seriously compromise the work of our group and everyone’s freedom to speak about women’s rights. Amendments such as removing the term “abusive” or adding freedom of expression protections for transgender identity will not fully mitigate the risks, so we are calling for Part 2 to be removed from the Bill.

Please email your views to justicecommittee@parliament.scot by the 24th July 2020.

Abuse and Women’s Rights

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The following was posted as a long thread on our Twitter account 29 June 2020:

The past 24 hours have seen another fab thread from @jk_rowling which, inevitably, resulted in further abuse. However, senior politicians in Scotland have been more focused on promoting a post from Teddy Hope, a non-binary member of @theSNP.

The unverified account from Hope about a meeting which took place several months ago has been countered by members of @WomensPledge who were also present.

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Letter to Health and Sport Committee

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Following the confusion about sex and gender after media reports on the Committee’s meeting to scrutinise the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill, we wrote the following letter to the Committee on 26th June. It has now been published on the Committee’s page. A copy has also been sent to the Sex and Gender in Data Working Group.

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