#Scarfgate: How Scottish MSPs act of allyship gave TERF opposition all the ammunition they need
Image via Mark Ruczaj at Unsplash
By Lauren Crookston
#Scarfgate – as dubbed by Twitter - is the most recent controversy the Scottish Government is currently facing, and for the most part, it seems to have slipped under everyone’s radar. To fill in the gaps, on Tuesday the 15th of November, at a debate on the amendments to The Gender Recognition Reform Bill, a woman wearing a supposedly provocative item of clothing was removed from the debate on the grounds of the garment having ‘political’ connotations. The item in question was a green, white and purple striped scarf: colours synonymous with the Suffragette Movement of the early 20th century and a modern symbol of feminism.
For context, The Gender Recognition Reform Bill seeks to amend The Gender Recognition Act (2004), making the process of getting a gender recognition certificate (GRC) an easier one. A GRC is required for transgender people to change their birth certificate and legally identify as their chosen gender, something which many trans-people regard as a milestone in their transition - for obvious reasons. It is then, however, an unfortunate reflection on our society when regarding the public backlash that this bill has faced - backlash supported by one of the most prolific and outspoken TERFs, the UK’s own JK Rowling.
TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist and generally refers to the ideology of cisgendered women who feel that the inclusion of trans-women in women’s spaces and discussions is an infringement upon the rights of ‘real’ women. In the UK, reforms to The Gender Recognition Act have historically come upon significant backlash by gender critical feminist groups who campaign to resist these changes, and thus far have succeeded.
These groups rally followers by claiming that making it easier to self-identify as a chosen gender will have cis-men flocking to identify as women to invade female spaces resulting in assault and harassment. These groups rely on fearmongering and misleading statistics to uphold the litany of transphobic propaganda they distribute and the sad reality is that this tactic is working. A notable such group in Scotland make statements such as this on their website: “Transwomen are just male people who subjectively believe that they are female. That’s it. That is all that’s required.” For Women Scotland has over 30 thousand followers on Twitter and routinely holds rallies for women to celebrate being a ‘real woman’.
Now what does all this have to do with #scarfgate? I cannot speak on behalf of the political views of the woman who was removed from the debate, nor do I intend to. The Scottish Government on the other hand, make their views somewhat more publicly available. Nicola Sturgeon went viral last month with a clip of her shutting down TERF ideology and in October the debate of the principle of the Bill in parliament had a whopping 88 votes for versus 33 against. The SNP proudly claim on their website: “We remain firmly committed to improving the lives of trans and non-binary people.”
This is all well and good, but my fears are that #scarfgate could throw a wrench in the works of making Scotland a more inclusive and progressive country. News reporting on the event have used ‘shocking’ and ‘outrageous’ in their headlines, there has been an uproar on Twitter with people crying that the MSPs wearing rainbow lanyards should have been removed under the same pretences.
The reason for the removal of this woman proudly displaying her ode to the women who fought for our rights has not been publicly disclosed. Therefore, I can only speculate that the thought process behind this action is that the seemingly innocuous scarf could allude to connotations of trans-exclusionary feminism. This is based on the fact that groups such as For Women Scotland feature the green, white and purple prominently to establish their brand on banners, their website and social media. If this is the case, I do believe the action to be one of well-intentioned naivety.
However, as well-intentioned as it may have been, this mistake has inadvertently only given ammunition to the opposition. What was intended as an act of allyship by the rainbow-donning MSPs has backfired monumentally in an act that can be perceived – in the most literal sense – of the stripping away of women’s rights: TERFs worst fears come into fruition.
Hanlon’s razor states “Never attribute malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” But, based on the public scrutiny #Scarfgate has come under, I find it doubtful that the opposition to the Gender Reform Act will consider this. An apology to the woman has since been issued, but I fear the damage has already been done. All we can hope to gain from this debacle is that the Scottish Government has learned something from it.