Campaigners have criticised Nicola Sturgeon’s proposal to enable people to change their gender at the age of 16, claiming the move could open the floodgates to teens requesting irreversible gender reassignment surgery.
The Scottish Government has said it plans to bring forward the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill within the next year.
The draft law would introduce a new and easier system for obtaining legal gender recognition in Scotland and could decrease the age at which someone can apply for a gender recognition certificate from 18 to 16.
Statistics obtained by the For Women Scotland campaign group showed there were at least 51 cases over a six-year period where trans males under the age of 18 had been approved for double mastectomies.
Those people were referred to NHS hospitals in England for assessment on specialist chest reconstruction.
The campaign group has expressed concerns that lowering the age limit for certificates to 16 could result in more young people requesting surgery which they could later repent.
Trina Budge, director of For Women Scotland, told a newspaper outlet that England and other nations were sensibly rolling back on invasive and non-reversible treatments for young trans people, and she said it was shocking to see Scotland going in the reverse direction.
She said that no physically healthy child should ever be locked into a pathway of puberty-blocking medications and wrong sex hormones, leading to the elimination of breasts at the age of 16.
She also said that reducing the age at which gender could be changed to 16 would unavoidably unlock the floodgates for countless more teenagers to request elective surgeries to match their new legal status.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said that under the oversight of their clinical team a tiny number of young adults have been referred for chest reconstruction surgery at 17. However, he said, further assessments needed before surgery meant that, in practice, it’s doubtful the procedure would take place before a person is 18.
The SNP committed to bringing forth its Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill in its new Programme for Government.
The document says that while the COVID 19 pandemic delayed their attempt to establish a more straightforward method for obtaining legal gender recognition, trans people shouldn’t have to go through a humiliating, traumatic and intrusive process to be legally recognised in their gender.
It said that within the next year, they will bring forward the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, removing the current medical requirements and decreasing the time that applicants for gender recognition need to have lived in their acquired gender from two years to three months.
This, of course, all makes no sense at all, considering you have to be 18 years old to buy tobacco and booze, and how will these people be getting surgery when all the waiting lists are backed up?
The NHS is in crisis and she does this. Not that these people shouldn’t have gender reconstruction, but waiting lists are pretty long at the moment, and there are numerous cases where young people like they do, have changed their minds.
A trans activist woman who transitioned in 2018 has sparked controversy by declaring that numerous people who have had gender reassignment regret the decision and want to return to their original sex.
The amount of young people seeking gender transition is at the highest it’s ever been, but little is reported about how many of them regret the decision later, finding they’re miserable with their new gender.
Many teenagers can’t even keep their bedroom tidy, let alone make a life-altering decision, but if someone wants a transition, then who are we to stand in their way?
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