Vad är en kvinna?

Single-sex spaces matter because women have the right, as a matter of privacy and dignity, not to be around people of the opposite sex when they are in vulnerable situations, receiving intimate care or undressing. But such spaces are also important for women’s safety. At the heart of the Scottish reforms is the question of whether the rights of a GRC should be extended from those with gender dysphoria – who experience genuine distress about their biological sex – to any man who says they identify as female, including men who derive sexual gratification from cross dressing, and male sex offenders looking for access to spaces where women are vulnerable, or who would prefer to be jailed with vulnerable women.

It takes an enviable level of naivety not to see the risks. Imagine the cover these legal protections would give to men who seek sexual pleasure from voyeurism or exposure and the control it would afford sex offenders over victims. Women who complain could just be tarred as “transphobic”, as they were when a convicted male sex offender who identified as female exposed their semi-erect penis to a young girl at a Californian spa.