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Row looms as Welsh Government plans to allow self-identifying transgender women to stand in Senedd elections as females

30 Oct 2023 8 minute read
Senedd in Cardiff Bay

Martin Shipton

The Welsh Government is setting itself on a potential collision course with the UK Government after deciding to allow people to self-identify their gender when standing as candidates for the Senedd.

Plans to increase the number of Senedd Members from 60 to 96 and change the electoral system to one that is wholly proportional have already been published in a Draft Bill.

But the Bill excluded another reform to which both Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru are committed: creating a gender-balanced Senedd by having quotas for male and female candidates. Instead, the Welsh Government has said that a second Draft Bill covering this aspect will be published before the end of 2023.

Welsh Government sources have told us that drafting the gender balance Bill has posed legal challenges. A whistleblower said to be close to the Welsh Government has leaked the text of this second Draft Bill to the Women’s Rights Network, a group that believes transgender women should not be allowed to self-identify as female when seeking election to the Senedd.

The Women’s Rights Network has passed on the leaked Bill to Nation.Cymru.

Section 7E of the Draft Bill states: “For the purposes of this section … ‘woman’ includes a transgender woman. ‘Transgender woman’ means a person (T) who is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process or part of a process for the purpose of reassigning T’s sex to female by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

“An order under Section 13 [of the Draft Bill] must make provision requiring a person (P) as part of the process by which P is nominated as a candidate to declare either that P is a woman or that P is not.

“A constituency returning officer may not challenge or make any enquiry in relation to a statement made by a candidate in accordance with an order under Section 13 that the candidate is a woman.”

The section of the Draft Bill adds: “The Welsh Ministers may by regulations amend this section for the purpose of changing the definition of ‘woman’.”

‘Deception’

The Women’s Rights Network has posted a series of messages on the social media channel X, formerly known as Twitter, stating: “UK SELF ID BY THE BACK DOOR: Welsh Govt will thumb their noses at UK Govt and introduce legislation in the new year to redefine ‘woman’ to include males, alter the definition of ‘woman’ at any time, squash any ability to challenge a self ID declaration.

“They are introducing a #GenderQuotasBill in the new year that claims to increase the number of women in the Senedd. This is a DECEPTION. It’s a means to introduce self ID in law. In the corridors of power, this is openly acknowledged & it may increase MALE representation.

“The Bill is in its drafting stage and will be put for consultation soon but we’ve seen it and can confirm the details. It will have consequences for Wales and the rest of the UK, and is believed to be a stepping stone towards a full #GRR Bill. Scotland Part 2.

“This is pure Dentons strategy [named after the world’s biggest law firm] – piggyback self ID onto other legislation. Welsh Govt are banking on a lack of will & resources to legally challenge this – they’ve already been advised they don’t have the legislative competence for it. The sheer contempt.

“Shocking that @WelshLabour, enabled by @Plaid would do this to women. Our politicians saw the self ID fiasco in Scotland and instead of wondering ‘maybe this isn’t the best idea’, they said ‘hold our beers’. They are aided by @Plaid (acting as useful idiots, while embroiled in their own misogyny scandal). Do YOU support this, @RhunapIorwerth? 51% of the Welsh population would like to know.

“Welsh Govt believes any @UKLabour Govt will lack the courage for a clash with @WelshLabour Given your pronged reluctance to acknowledge what a woman is, are they right on this @Keir_Starmer?

“Welsh Govt KNOWS it doesn’t have the legal competence to bring this in. Yet they arrogantly drive on, complacently believing no one will have the will or resources to challenge them. We put you on notice @PrifWeinidog – your confidence is misplaced.”

Scotland

Earlier this year the UK Government intervened to block legislation from the Scottish Government that would have allowed people to self-identify as the gender of their choice without medical certification. The furore that ensued from the self-identification decision was a factor in Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation as First Minister.

Heather Binning, founder of the Women’s Rights Network, said: “Redefining the word ‘woman’ has implications for all women in the UK and is both extraordinary and deeply concerning.

“Despite seeing all that happened with gender reform in Scotland – particularly in the case of ‘Isla Bryson’ – the Welsh Government seems not to have learned any lessons. Attempting to bring gender self ID in on the back of another imminent piece of legislation that purports to benefit women is devious and disingenuous. It must be resisted.”

Isla Bryson is a convicted rapist who wanted to be accommodated in a women’s prison.

Draft bill

It is understood that the leaked text of the Senedd Cymru (electoral candidate lists) Wales Bill is not the latest version.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We are working to introduce a Bill to make our parliament more representative of the people it serves, which includes provisions to introduce candidate quotas for people seeking election to the Senedd.

“Our proposed model for quotas is designed to maximise the chances of achieving a Senedd comprised of at least 50% women. Work is ongoing on the Bill.”

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “We are determined to make the Senedd more representative of the people it serves, and legislation for statutory gender quotas is a key part of that endeavour.

“It would not be appropriate to comment on leaked documents that are still in development. Plaid Cymru looks forward to the publication of the final bill later this year, and the Senedd and all interested parties will have an opportunity to fully scrutinise the bill.”

Secretary of State for Wales David TC Davies said: “I am concerned about this proposal and have met with women’s rights groups recently to discuss their views. One of my gravest fears is that the plan could have a detrimental impact on women’s rights across our country.

“Those rights have been hard fought for and I fear could now be undermined by the Labour-run Welsh Government’s ill-thought policy. Labour’s priorities should be fixing the Welsh NHS, which has the worst waiting lists in the UK, and creating better-paid jobs.”

Agenda

Cathy Larkman from Women’s Rights Network Wales said: “We know from bitter experience that the Welsh Government is not listening to the concerns of women in Wales. We, along with other groups, have been shut out time and again. Unfortunately, the reasons for this are now apparent. The government is now intent on driving a highly contested ideological agenda and this is clearly their first step.

“It is astonishing that the government is spending public funds and using a Gender Quotas Bill to promote an agenda which undermines the rights of half the population of Wales. It is shameful that they are highjacking legislation that should benefit women and increase female participation in political life, to embed a toxic and misogynistic ideology.

“The government does not have the legal powers to push this through and is highly likely to fail when it is challenged in the courts, as it will be. This is a scandalous waste of public money, particularly when the lessons of Scotland are well documented. We are putting the government on notice – women will organise to fight this attack on our rights in every way possible.

“We believe that the intention of the Welsh Government is to introduce gender self-identification and put it on a statutory footing. We believe this is the first step towards a full self-ID bill which would have serious implications for women and girls in particular as it would impact on single-sex services and spaces such as changing rooms, intimate care, hospital wards and domestic violence services.

“It is unforgivable that the First Minister and his government, aided and abetted by Plaid Cymru, intend to betray the women of Wales in this underhand way.”

The LGBT campaign organisation Stonewall has also been asked to comment.


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hdavies15
hdavies15
11 months ago

 “……potential collision course with the UK Government…” It might also be on collision course with much of the Welsh public who are either opposed or don’t attach a high priority to this subject.   This government needs to figure out how it proposes to assist people into and through transition. Self identifying without intent to transition is a time wasting activity that uses up a lot of energy that could and should be deployed to assist those who are sincere in their intentions. Sadly it seems that the majority of those cases who protest loudly about identity but do little… Read more »

Isabel Jones
Isabel Jones
11 months ago
Reply to  hdavies15

It also creates lifelong medical patients who will require medication till they die and also treatment for the problems that arise from taking cross-sex hormones. Young people who’ve had puberty blockers are developing things like osteoporosis in their 20s and 30s. Of course, the vast majority of trans people don’t do anything at all except change their names and the way they dress. Which is fine by me as long as they don’t insist that makes them a woman and eligible for a woman’s place in the Senedd or a bed in a women’s ward in hospital.

David
David
11 months ago
Reply to  Isabel Jones

And using female chabing rooms.

Another Richard
Another Richard
11 months ago

An expanded Senedd which is “gender-balanced” because some of its members are men who claim to be women will be even more of a joke than its current incarnation. If some MSs are there only because of the sex they are (or purport to be) they will be taking the places of people who may enjoy more popular support or be better qualified. Better not to have quotas at all – no-one, as far as I can see, has set out a convincing case for them.

Brenda
Brenda
11 months ago

Well done Nation Cymru for exposing the Welsh governments deception of the Welsh public. You will find that Wales is NOT exempt from the Equality Act 2010 and that the protected characteristics include SEX and not gender. To talk about “gender quotas” is a nonsense. Further self ID is NOT devolved and therefore not legally possible. Another fact is that it is Gender Reassignment, not gender identity which is protected by the EA. It really is time that Stonewall stopped ruling Wales with half truths and lies. Oh and let’s just be clear – Trans is an umbrella term –… Read more »

Ali Morris
Ali Morris
11 months ago

So called trans people have the same rights as everyone else in the UK. I’d be interested to know what rights they don’t have. If you mean trans identifying men having the right to invade female single sex spaces or the right to insist everyone else believes in gender ideology and the lie that people can change sex then then yes, they don’t have these ‘rights’. Forr many many women this is high on their agenda, if not the top priority. Our children are being force fed lies and unscientific nonsense, our safe spaces (including hospital wards and refuges) are… Read more »

Son of Me
Son of Me
11 months ago

This cannot and shall not be allowed. If you’re born as one gender, it is IMPOSSIBLE to switch.

Isabel Jones
Isabel Jones
11 months ago
Reply to  Son of Me

Sex is real and scientifically provable. Show me your skeleton and I can tell from your pelvis whether you’re male or female. A DNA test will confirm. Gender is just a feeling, closely related to sexual stereotypes. The kind of nonsense that insists that if a woman likes wearing trousers and short hair, she’s really a man. Or that a man who likes eyeliner and long hair is actually a woman born in the wrong body. Stupid stereotyping that many of us thought we’d seen an end of in the 80s and 90s.

oatmaster
oatmaster
11 months ago
Reply to  Isabel Jones

When was your DNA tested to prove the chromosomes you possess?

Sarah Good
Sarah Good
11 months ago
Reply to  Isabel Jones

Can you Isobel? Archaeologists can’t. And have said so recently. They can estimate based on size, but for instance the “Red Lady of Paviland” later turned out to be a young male.
Maybe there’s a career for you if you can do what they admit they cannot.

Andrew Robinson-Redman
Andrew Robinson-Redman
11 months ago
Reply to  Sarah Good

How many other cases have been found anywhere on earth where this has been the case?

Isabel Jones
Isabel Jones
11 months ago

Thank you, Nation Cymru, for bringing this to my attention. Just in case anyone is any doubt, any man can self-ID as a trans woman at any time. It doesn’t require a letter from a doctor, let alone drugs or surgery or even counselling. Your dad or son or brother can transition at any time he likes, just by saying he identifies as female, and stand as a woman in the Senedd elections. He will be just one of around 6000 people in Wales who ticked the transgender box in the 2022 Census. That’s 0.02 of the population in Wales.… Read more »

Elen Wade
Elen Wade
11 months ago

I will never vote for a biological man who wears a dress, expects me to call him a woman and who tells me he’s allowed to use my language and safe spaces, and tells me I’m a “cis woman”. It’s as simple of that.

Sarah Good
Sarah Good
11 months ago
Reply to  Elen Wade

Yes. That’s how democracy works. If I am presented with a transwoman on the ballot, I will vote for her if I support the policies she represents. Otherwise I will not.

Elen Wade
Elen Wade
11 months ago
Reply to  Sarah Good

Of course, if we lie to ourselves enough, we can believe anything about anything we are presented with. But I don’t think I would vote for him. And neither would any other woman who is a member of the reality based community.

Rob
Rob
11 months ago

Just to be perfectly clear, I support the expansion of the Senedd as well as abolishing the archaic first past the post electoral system. However the proposal for gender quotas is undemocratic, insulting and will just lead to more unnecessary divisions.

I don’t care if my Senedd member is male, female or transgender, I only care about their ability to do their job and represent my interests.

Dafydd
Dafydd
11 months ago

Are they competent? That’s all that matters.

Riki
Riki
11 months ago

Are you ready for Wales to become an even bigger laughing stock? Sometimes I seriously feel like this nation really is doomed!

Vyvyan
Vyvyan
11 months ago

RT incoming in 5,4,3, 2, 1

Richard E
Richard E
11 months ago

An interesting pathway that will link those opposing Senedd reform with those of one opinion around gender policy direction…🤔.

im just hoping that this “ alliance “ however justified will NOT slow down Wales pathway ?

Another Richard
Another Richard
11 months ago

The header states that there are 47 comments but only 23 are visible. What, please, has happened to the others? They included some of mine, written as replies to other comments which were heavily voted down. I’d be interested to know what policy is at work here.

Richard E
Richard E
11 months ago

A fair point

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