[Cherry was concerned about the] absence of tailored defences for women who hold the view that sex is immutable and who wish to speak plainly about t… - Joanna Cherry

In my view, it would be perfectly simple to have stronger safeguards in this Bill without causing any detriments to genuine trans people who wanted to get a gender recognition certificate.
In holding this view, I'm not going against my party policy. The Scottish National Party has never voted for self-ID as a policy at conference and it wasn't in our manifesto.
What it did promise to do was make the process of gender recognition easier for trans people which I support. What I don't support is opening it up to just anyone with minimal safeguards.

A political party that allows male members to harass and abuse female members, including elected parliamentarians, without any censure whatsoever is not progressive. Those who run the SNP and indeed the Scottish Greens, the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats need to understand that men who abuse women and threaten violence against them often act on those threats. The conviction of former SNP branch equalities officer Cameron Downing for serious sexual assaults has underlined this eternal truth. This man was feted by some within the SNP despite repeatedly threatening extreme violence to feminists. The deafening silence since his conviction is shameful.

[Advocating for the protection of free speech from "the heckler's veto"] The failure to do so and the actions of some political figures in fostering an intolerant and hateful climate where small groups of activists now decide who can speak and what can be discussed needs to be called out.
What does it say about the Fringe and Edinburgh, the home of the enlightenment, when an elected Edinburgh politician can’t be asked questions on stage in the city they represent?