Police Scotland allows 'transitioning' cross-dressers in women's spaces
Police Scotland has been put on blast for allowing cross-dressers in women's spaces
PA
Police Scotland has been put on blast for allowing cross-dressers in women's spaces under rules for employees "transitioning at work".
The force had let cross-dressers and androgynous people - defined as possessing both male and female characteristics - use toilets and changing facilities, regardless of whether they had undergone either surgery or a "social" transition by changing their name or look.
Its rules, put in place in 2019 while the SNP was preparing to change the law to let Scots "self-declare" their gender, have come under fire for "riding roughshod over the interests and safety of its female staff and officers".
In Police Scotland policies, cross-dressers are defined as "people who dress, either occasionally or more regularly, in clothes associated with the opposite gender, as defined by socially accepted norms".
The force had let cross-dressers and androgynous people use toilets and changing facilities, regardless of whether they had undergone any sort of transition
REUTERS
Further documents state that cross-dressers come under the workplace trans policy and are "entitled to use toilet and changing facilities appropriate to the sex in which they are currently living".
In effect, men would be able to enter women-only spaces by simply identifying as female or by cross-dressing.
And now, gender-critical policy analysis group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (MBM) - which has criticised the force in the past - has lambasted Police Scotland for handing cross-dressers a so-called "access all areas pass" to women's spaces.
Kath Murray, from the group, said: "In aligning its policy with the ambitions of government and activists, Police Scotland managers rode roughshod over the interests and safety of its female staff and officers.
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The SNP plan, headed up by former leader Nicola Sturgeon, was blocked by the British Government last year
PA"Ignoring internal warnings, it put in place an access-all-areas pass that disregarded basic safeguarding principles and left the single service open to the type of legal challenges now playing out in other public bodies.
"Just as the policy gave cross-dressers a free pass to access female-only spaces, it did the same for any man claiming a subjective and unverifiable trans identity."
The SNP plan, headed up by former leader Nicola Sturgeon, was blocked by the British Government last year.
But Police Scotland chief constable Jo Farrell said last month that a lack of clear legislation on trans issues had forced public bodies into making their own rules.
Police Scotland has been put on blast for allowing cross-dressers in women's spacesPAHer comments - branded a "major U-turn" - came as Police Scotland's Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs wrote to Holyrood's justice committee on Wednesday to provide his "absolute" assurance that male sexual predators would always be identified as men on police records.
Back then, MBM again pointed to examples of Police Scotland "persistently and vigorously" backing the use of self-ID - even for sex offenders.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: "Police Scotland published its Transitioning at Work Policy 2019 to support officers and staff in their journey of transition.
"We must create an inclusive and fair working environment, free from discrimination, which meets the needs of our diverse workforce."
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