UNTIL a few days ago a trans woman was a woman full stop. Anyone who thought differently was a transphobe according to the First Minister.

Now a trans woman with “a history of violence against women” facing prison will be treated as a man and sent to a male prison. In other words, only some trans women are women, or some trans women are men sometimes.

READ MORE: Trans prisoner pause was to give clarity, says Sturgeon

Either the First Minister and her government are now transphobes, or maybe, just maybe, they have had to face the reality that there are important contexts in which an individual cannot change his or her sex at will.

This makes a nonsense of the Gender Recognition Reform legislation, and a responsible government would now recall it for an urgent rethink.

Linda Holt
Pittenweem