shades fills you in

WaPo: In December, Scotland’s Parliament passed a bill making it easier for trans people to legally change their gender. In January, the UK Parliament blocked the bill, using its power to veto Scottish laws for the first time ever

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said Scotland will challenge the UK’s veto and “vigorously defend” the bill in court -- The AP

A Scottish Parliament member wrote in The Guardian: “This was an ”attack on Scotland’s powers“ and a bad-faith decision. Scotland consulted with the UK throughout, and the UK never raised any objections”

This TikToker had a similar take: No matter where you stand on the trans issue, this is scary! If the UK can interfere in Scotland’s laws whenever it feels like, that’s a huge threat to Scotland’s democracy

This Metro.co Op: “Ignorance has won again” -- all the fearmongering about this bill just shows that the UK does not care about trans rights and does not understand trans people

But this Telegraph Op thought the UK did the right thing: The bill would affect both Scotland *and* all of the UK -- and it poses a real risk to single-sex spaces. For example, an English all-girls school would legally have to admit a trans girl with a Scottish gender recognition certificate

And The Times reported on a poll that found that around 2/3 of Scottish voters opposed most of the bill. The only part that had majority support was criminal penalties for fraudulently getting a gender recognition certificate

Letter writers to The Scotland Herald were mixed. One said the UK’s veto was a gross overreach that threatens to strip power from the Scottish Parliament, but two others said the bill was dangerous and should definitely be blocked

This iNews Op said the UK’s big trans culture war is a sign of the country’s deterioration: “We’re becoming more ”tribal, disconnected and terrified’". They pretend to protect women, but it’s just a convenient way to divide and distract