ON Tuesday a woman was told to take off a scarf in suffragette colours in a committee meeting in the Scottish Parliament. The sheer stupidity of this is made more obvious by the fact scarves in those colours are currently being sold in the parliament building.

How many rainbow lanyards have we seen? I have seen them in the debating chamber, I have seen them in committee rooms but these are not removed. The chickens are coming home to roost for the SNP with the Gender Recognition Reform Bill – we keep getting told it will not make any difference to women’s safe spaces and rights and yet if a male-bodied man has a Gender Recognition Certificate he is called a woman and can access women-only spaces and can even give care services to other women.

READ MORE: Scottish Parliament committee closed over row about Suffragette scarf

So it is simply not correct to say that women’s rights etc will not be affected as Shona Robson is fond of telling us. We recently had the ridiculous scene of a lesbian woman who did not want to date a male-bodied “woman” being called transphobic.

Women’s rights have been too hard fought for – what is happening now is the last area men want to claim, and a very few people are calling the tune. This is going to cost the SNP dear – I just hope it does not cost us independence.

I remember after an indy march going into the parliament and being asked to leave flags outside – our own parliament. I wrote to my MSP and did not even get the courtesy of a reply.

Winifred McCartney
Paisley

I CAN’T help but feel that Beth Douglas (Letters, Nov 11) has somewhat got the priorities wrong in saying that without a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) a trans person will be “buried or cremated under the wrong gender”. Really? I think for most of us if that was all that was wrong with this legislation, we would take it. Personally, I am much more concerned with where I go after death than the “sex” I am buried under.

Beth asks when anyone is asked for a GRC before accessing single-sex spaces. I rather think that is the point. No-one is, and the Scottish Government has created an atmosphere where those who challenge biological males in those spaces are called transphobes or told they are imagining things. Single-sex spaces are based on sex, not gender.

READ MORE: Scottish Parliament apology to woman ejected for Suffragette scarf

The Gender Recognition Certificate actually offers no automatic right of entry to single-sex spaces. Biological males can be excluded if it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. And no matter what a GRC says, it does not alter the fact that you remain biologically male or female until the day you die, which is why single-sex exemptions exist at all, for safety where men’s greater physical strength is an issue, for fairness where strength in sport is an issue, for equality in representation where inequality is an issue, and for those vulnerable and abused by men to be freed from the presence of men.

Until the Forstater case women were shouted down and silenced, threatened with losing their jobs and livelihoods, and our own Scottish Government appeared indifferent at best. The trans lobby says Scottish public opinion is on their side. It is not, as the 150 amendments to this legislation show. Finally, our representatives are listening to women’s concerns. It is regrettable that at the moment only eight days are being allowed to consider them.

Trans people must be protected by the law, but their rights must never be at the expense of women.

Julia Pannell
Friockheim, Tayside

I AM grateful to Xander Elliards for highlighting the Scottish Family Party’s threat of protest action against Glasgow’s Sandyford Clinic (Party plans protest at clinic over abortions, Nov 10). As MSP Gillian MacKay said, this is indeed disgusting behaviour which demonstrates the need for national buffer zone legislation to ensure patient safety.

In recent months the Sandyford clinic has already been targeted by preacher who used voice-amplification systems, filmed patients and forced some clinics to close. This clinic offers counselling to people who have been raped and sexually abused. It is often where the police refer assault victims to have forensic samples taken by compassionate and highly trained staff. The last thing anyone needs when attending this clinic is to be confronted by protesters shouting and wielding placards.

READ MORE: Scottish campaigners react to US states enshrining abortion rights

The “Scottish Family Party” were holding their annual conference last weekend, claiming this year’s theme was “protecting children”. This is the same party who recently sent Nicola Sturgeon a cruel open letter about her miscarriage and compared sexual health clinics to Auschwitz on social media.

I hope the Scottish electorate remember this abusive behaviour towards some of the most traumatised people in Scotland. This organisation have no interest in protecting anyone or anything other than their own hateful agenda.

Gemma Clark
Paisley