Feminist groups call on Nicola Sturgeon to clarify comments

A group of women’s organisations has called on Nicola Sturgeon to clarify her comments about "forces” opposing the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.  

The former first minister described “forces” who “muscled their way” into the debate “to push back rights generally” during interviews marking the tenth anniversary of Scotland’s equal marriage laws.  

Feminist groups, including For Women Scotland, Women Won’t Wheesht, and Murray Blackburn Mackenzie have called on her to provide detail, rather than “dropping hints” about “shadowy forces” in an open letter.  

In the open letter to Sturgeon, which has also been signed by the Scottish Feminist Network, Scottish Lesbians, and the Women’s Rights Network Scotland, the group said: “Regardless of your intentions, a person might reasonably believe you are referring to those groups or individuals who played a leading part in criticising the Scottish Government’s proposals.”  

Sturgeon told Diva magazine: “I’ve had more abuse hurled at me on the issue of trans rights than I have on probably any other issue in my career, and I am a politician who helped lead an independence referendum.  

“There are people who have muscled their way into that debate no doubt because they are transphobic but also because they want to push back rights generally. I do think that we need to be very vigilant about that as well.”  

In an interview with the Guardian, she said the debate around the reforms “became so toxic, and opposition became so entrenched and – this is not the case for everybody who opposed that legislation – but there were forces that muscled into that debate who, I think, you know, had a bigger agenda in terms of rights more generally.”  

Sturgeon also suggested during the interviews that she intends to cover this period in her forthcoming autobiography. 

The groups have said the former SNP leader is “not the first politician to make such a claim” but said her “prominence as Scotland’s longest-serving first minister, and its first female first minister” means her comments “carry weight”.  

The group said: “If you believe that there are groups or individuals with an agenda to ‘push back rights generally’ who are ‘muscling in’ on Scottish politics, you have a duty to state who or what you believe they are, and how you believe they are operating in Scotland, as precisely as possible. Then, the influence of any such groups or individuals can be properly investigated and challenged, as necessary.”  

The letter continues: “We therefore invite you to move away from dropping broad hints of potential wide application, and to take the more responsible step of making clear who you do, and do not, mean in the comments above, and to put the evidence on which your comments are based into the public domain without delay.”