AS I write this piece, I am surrounded by the aftermath of it all. The rush and noise have now been reduced to a “quiet mayhem” – I think I would call it that if it was an art piece.

Toys and gifts all around me, wrapping paper and dirty glasses to be cleared away. I am sitting with a blanket on the sofa and behind me on the wall hangs a piece of art by my grandfather, one of two my dad had gifted me for Christmas.

All the while, cartoons natter in the background, my two grandchildren watching, who are beside me on the sofa.

All six of my children are sleeping off a late night/early morning bedtime, and my lovely son-in-law is busy cleaning up in the kitchen.

It feels complete when I have all my babies together under one roof. There’s a kind of relief that comes from gathering my ducklings and knowing exactly where they are, regardless of age.

Last week was an incredibly hectic one in more ways than one and to feel safe at home surrounded by people I love and who love me is the gift I needed most. I don’t know if Christmas will ever be a quiet affair for me, I love my large family – but a large family, Christmas, a constituency campaign, and gender recognition reform certainly had me kept very busy.

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I am still in disbelief at the attempts to push back the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill, the reactions by some to it, and the Twitter abuse that keeps on coming. This abuse, as predicted, does spill out into the real world. I have had to report a strange incident to the police, and it is certainly unnerving because of the nature of it.

I was checking my personal emails and received a booking confirmation for a salon appointment, a salon not far from Parliament and at the same time as the GRR bill was to be debated and voted on. The appointment was for, among other things, an extended bikini wax.

Bit odd, I thought, and misogynistic in its intention. (Don’t get me started on the expectation for hairless women, maybe for an article another day) This was quite unnerving for me if I am honest. I do have a dark humour, often seeing the funny side of things I perhaps shouldn’t. But to use my personal email – and now it has been confirmed my personal phone number too – is just a nod too far into my personal life.

It certainly makes me look over my shoulder, and wonder who’s obsessing, and who’s caring so much as to purposely try to make me feel uncomfortable. Particularly when the harassment is focused on my genitals – extra creepy – and triggering, considering my past.

This focus on genitals has been a theme, as we saw in Parliament. After two very long extended days of debate, which were caused by the Scottish Tories filibustering at every turn and some of the worst takes I have heard during the whole debate, we finally got to vote on GRR.

The bill passed, and after an emotional standing ovation where we were able to look up to the gallery and see some of our trans community, allies and activists – I felt such pride in what we had achieved. I knew how hard it had been for me, and I can’t comprehend how hard it has been for them.

When we sat down to get back to business a protester and self-proclaimed gender-critical activist started shouting. We had had a few bouts of this over the last two days, but what I didn’t expect was what came next. She lifted her skirt and aggressively growled that she would be indecent.

I didn’t see clearly enough to notice that she was wearing a merkin, so I thought it was her pubic hair and genitals she was exposing. I saw at least two children in the gallery and the look of horror on some faces but smiles and amusement on others.

It was shocking and offensive and had no place in our Parliament. The image of her exposing herself has returned to my mind a few times since, but mostly the way it happened – the aggressiveness makes it sickening to the stomach.

I note many others who were there that day have expressed their upset at this, too. We cannot allow this to happen unchallenged, we can’t dismiss this as being nothing serious because it was a merkin and not flesh, or because she was a woman – it makes no difference.

People who have suffered sexual assaults will be triggered by it regardless of where the person was coming from. It was selfish and ignorant in my opinion.

I just hope those who are continuing with intrusive thoughts can find solace that many believe how upsetting it was and that I certainly do get it. If that had been a trans activist, the kangaroo court of social media and the press would have the person sent straight to media jail.

As Shona Robison closed the debate, she commented in regard to the tone and language in the Chamber and how we must do better. We absolutely must. To argue that the opponents to the bill only had genuine concerns about bad faith actors was exposed as the bad faith actor itself.

With transphobic dog whistles and a two-day debate on predators and sexual offenders, regardless of how it’s framed, it does induce moral panic, and those taking part in it, and dismissing it with pedantic arguments to wriggle out of the connections they are drawing should perhaps have a lengthy reflection at their words and actions. It was a disgrace.

So the aftermath, what will it bring? The GRR itself will bring a much-needed admin change for trans people to have more dignity.

For us, nothing much will change, just like in other countries where the bill has passed. We have a more equal Scotland today than we did last week.