This is not an April Fool. The Scottish National Party has promised new gender recognition laws in Scotland, which will include recognition for a third gender, if they are returned to power in the forthcoming elections in May.

This is, of course, Scottish law that we are talking about. They won’t be able to issue new UK passports, though if Scotland were to leave the Union at some future date an X on passports is certainly a possibility. However, the SNP is also the third largest party in Westminster with 54 of the 640 seats. I believe that the Liberal Democrats, who have 8 seats, are also in favor of non-binary recognition, which would mean almost 10% of Parliament supporting the cause. Clearly some of the Conservative and Labour MPs who sat on the Transgender Equality Inquiry support it too. Having the Scottish government officially recognize non-binary genders would be send a very powerful signal to Westminster.

The press in Scotland seems a bit confused. The Scotsman hails this as a “gay rights package”. Most people seems to be quoting the fabulous James Morton of Scottish Trans. Of course they are also quoting the Wee Frees. The Moderator, Rev David Robertson, has apparently accused the SNP of “working on the unproven and somewhat bizarre notion that children get to choose their own gender and sexuality.” What, you mean instead of having such things imposed upon them by adults? How bizarre!

The English press appears to have largely missed the boat (the story broke late last night). The Telegraph is on the ball and leads with the possibility that the new Scottish law will allow trans people to change their birth certificates (and therefore their legal gender) without medical approval. I’m not certain whether the Scottish Parliament can do that, but if they can it would be a major shot across Westminster’s bows because it would apply to anyone born in Scotland, regardless of where they live. (The USA has a similar issue in that all states, even North Carolina, have to accept birth certificates changed by other states.)

Anyway, I look forward to the anguished article in the New Statesman explaining how this is “child abuse” and expressing full support for the Wee Frees.

If you are a UK citizen and would like to remind Westminster of the important of non-binary gender recognition, the current petition can be found here.