When a friend of mine tagged me under one of J.K. Rowling’s many controversial tweets a few days ago, I didn’t quite understand how I felt about her statements. I was disappointed, as you can imagine, and I kept reading and reading the same phrases, hoping that it was just a misunderstanding.
However, like it often happens with idols, once you get to know them either in person or through statements such as the aforementioned tweets, you’re very likely to change your mind about them, which is exactly what happened to me.
But as much as I love expressing my opinions, I reckon that newspapers, along with people on their social media, have covered this argument enough, and that you’re probably tired of reading the same story over and over again.
Thus, we’re directing the discussion towards a serious matter which is neither hating J.K. Rowling and her works, nor putting her again at the centre of an article, but educating ourselves together in order to protect a part of our society that is still seeing its right being denied.
On this matter, Scotland has been working on a reform of the Gender Recognition Act, and has introduced dozens of gender neutral toilets in Victoria Quay, a Government building with over 2000 civil workers, through the Smarter Workplaces Programme, and in other places such as the University of Edinburgh.
However, many people are afraid that the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform might be easily exploited by sexual predators, since it recognises that ‘the “gender reassignment” protected characteristic […] covers people who intend to, are transitioning, or have transitioned. To have the protected characteristic a person does not need to have undergone medical or surgical treatment.’
On the contrary, this reform was made in order to make it easier for trans people to have their rights fully recognised without having to seek any medical assistance, and reduces both the steps and the amount of time required to get a gender recognition. It also eases many processes such as changing a birth certificate, which is a really important achievement for the community.
Nevertheless, some people have shared their worries about this type of toilets, because they believe that it might put women in danger whereas men would have the access to the same spaces such as unisex toilets by just falsely declaring that they identify as women, without undergoing any medical or surgical treatment, thus putting every female, and most importantly young girls, in danger.
Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary, addressed these concerns:
“We recognise that there are men who seek to abuse women and we want women to be safe from that violence. We have taken action to change the law to protect women from such abuse. This is a global issue and not a new issue for Scotland or indeed the UK. And it is not the fault of trans people. It is the fault of the abusive men. Which is why we will continue to address violence against women and girls through our Equally Safe strategy which takes a gendered approach.”
Moreover, several researches show that gender neutral toilets have a long list of positive features: in fact, not only they are more inclusive and safer for trans people, drastically lowering the risk of them being victims of violent acts and sexual harassment, but they also avail people with disabilities, and the elderly — and they reduce the waiting time for women to around one minute.
These changes that are happening in Scotland should not be considered a threat at all, but the accomplishment of no longer denied rights — and should be admired and imitated by the other Countries. Because this is 2020, and nobody should ever experience discrimination against because of their sex, gender, sexual orientation, skin colour, religion, political preferences, and so on.
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