An academic and gay rights campaigner has claimed critics of Nicola Sturgeon’s transgender reforms are being “excluded from the political process” in Scotland after she was blocked from joining a Holyrood LGBT group.
Dr Shereen Benjamin said that she was viewed as “the wrong sort of lesbian” after MSPs and pro-trans rights lobbyists unanimously decided to refuse her membership of a Scottish Parliament forum, which she said she had wanted to join to find common ground with opponents.
Last December, she applied to join the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party LGBTI+ group as a representative of For Women Scotland, one of the most prominent grassroots campaign groups, which opposes SNP plans to overhaul the Gender Recognition Act.
However, her application was refused by existing members, which include MSPs and several representatives of taxpayer-funded lobby groups backing controversial reforms.
At the previous meeting of the group, set up in 2016 to “promote and discuss issues of importance to the LGBTI+ community in Scotland”, members had backed the idea of hearing from more “women’s sector” groups.
“We made it clear our request was in good faith, and that we wanted to contribute to finding resolutions that will protect everyone,” said Dr Benjamin, a University of Edinburgh lecturer and former school teacher.
“It seems the only lesbians the Scottish Parliament wants to work with are those who deny the materiality of sex. As same-sex attracted women, it appears that we’re the ‘wrong sort of lesbians’ and can be excluded from the political process, with no reason given.”
