SNP ministers refuse to ditch gender reform legislation despite court defeat

dailyrecord.co.uk:

SNP ministers have refused to ditch controversial gender reform legislation despite accepting it has no chance of becoming law while the Conservatives remain in power at Westminster.Shirley-Anne Somerville confirmed today the Scottish Government would not appeal a court ruling which found Alister Jack did have the right to block the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Act.A majority of MSPs from across the parties voted in favour of gender reforms in December last year which would have allowed Scots to change their legally recognised gender more easily.But the legislation did not become law after Jack, the Scottish Secretary, intervened in January to block it by issuing a rare Section 35 order.The Scottish Government then went to the Court of Session in a failed bid to have judges overturn the Tory minister's actions.Somerville, the Social Justice Secretary, said today the GRR bill "remained the government's policy"."As we can see from the cross-party support for the Bill, it remains what this parliament would like to see enacted," she added."However, the UK Government's intervention means the Bill cannot proceed to Royal Assent."It remains a Bill passed by the majority of this parliament and we will not be withdrawing it."There is a strong indication that any diversion of approach would be unacceptable to the UK Government."It is therefore impossible to see how progress can be made."Somerville continued: "Nonetheless, our offer is still there.

If the current UK Government is willing to work together on this, we will happily sit down with them."If a future UK Government is willing, we will do so with them, so the Section 35 could be lifted and the Bill progresses."It seems clear the current UK Government will not do this."Ja