The absurdity that led to atrocity: How gender ideology has harmed women, children, and reality in Scotland

WHEN I WAS A STUDENT, I had a Voltaire quote pinned above my desk: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” It covered a damp stain on the wall, and I thought it made me sound intelligent, but those words are as true today as they were in the eighteenth century.

Across the Western world, we are witnessing the atrocities committed as a result of the absurd belief that humans can change sex. This is especially true in Scotland, given the SNP and Greens’ almost religious obsession with gender ideology.

Disciples believe we all have a gendered”‘soul” which determines whether we are men or women, not our biology. If it matches your body, you’re “cis”; if not, “trans”.

Proponents claim dozens – or even infinite – gender identities, including Clown gender, Hurricane gender, Alien gender, Cosmic gender and Cat gender. My personal favourite is Astro gender, defined as a fluid gender identity that transitions from male to female to non-binary, depending on the current configuration of the night sky.

Pronoun declarations (he/him, she/her, they/them, ze/zir etc.) became mandatory signals of allegiance, with heretics labelled bigots. A former co-chair of the Green Party was expelled for mocking “fae/faer” pronouns used by those identifying as fairies.

Although it’s easy to poke fun, the consequences have been devastating.

Under Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP-Green coalition, Scotland embraced this fully. The 2022 Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill would have allowed self-identification from age sixteen, enabling males to obtain female birth certificates on declaration alone and access women-only spaces. Men like “Isla Bryson” (real name Adam Graham), the convicted double rapist housed in a women’s prison in Stirling. Critics of GRR were dismissed as bigots, and attempts to include safeguards to prevent sex offenders abusing the legislation were rejected. Fortunately, Westminster blocked the Bill via Section 35.

Gender ideology has infested our public institutions

Then came Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime Act that criminalised “hurty words” about gender identity, even views expressed within private homes. Initially, biological sex was excluded from the Act, meaning women and girls were not protected from hate speech, and leaving gender-critical views vulnerable to prosecution. Only recently has the Scottish government announced its intention to add sex as a protected characteristic to the Act.

Gender ideology has infested our public institutions. In the NHS, women undergo mastectomies for “gender dysphoria,” while language reduces them (ironically) to their biology: “womb-havers,” “cervix owners,” “inseminated persons”. Police guidance once proposed allowing males with Gender Recognition Certificates (GRC) to strip-search female detainees. Courts have been directed to affirm identities, leading to phrases like “she raped her with her penis”.

At Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, a trans-identified male CEO told rape victims objecting to male examiners or therapists to “reframe their trauma” or risk being labelled transphobic.

Nurse Sandie Peggie faced disciplinary action for objecting to undressing in front of a trans-identified male doctor (“Beth” Upton). NHS Fife spent over £220,000 defending the case – funds that could have been better spent reducing the surgical waiting list where 10,000 patients await an operation, some as long as 800 days.

Referrals of young people identifying as the opposite sex have exploded. By early 2025, Sandyford gender clinic in Glasgow had nearly 1,000 children on its waiting list, some as young as five. The Cass Review (2024) found no evidence for a distinct “trans child” category and criticised “affirmative” care as often leading to irreversible paths of sterilisation, surgery, and lifelong medicalisation.

Scottish guidance – often from LGBT Youth Scotland (whose former CEO is a convicted paedophile) – promoted social transition in nurseries and schools for children as young as four. Millions in public funds has been awarded to LGBTQ+ charities to deliver this in education.

If education is not grounded in truth, it is worthless

In 2024, For Women Scotland challenged the government, culminating in the UK Supreme Court’s April 2025 ruling that “sex,” “man,” and “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 mean biological sex at birth – not gender identity or acquired gender via GRC. Finally, common sense prevailed but why did it take the highest court in the land to decree what’s so bleeding obvious that it’s at risk of haemorrhaging?

Yet implementation has been slow. The Scottish Government only revised its schools guidance in September 2025, stating facilities must be provided “on the basis of biological sex” and requiring separate toilets for boys and girls.

However, in prisons, trans-identified males remain in the female estate under risk-based guidance, despite the ruling. For Women Scotland’s ongoing legal challenge argues this breaches the judgment.

The SNP and Greens drove much of this, but Labour, Lib Dems, and even past Tories share responsibility. John Swinney, Keir Starmer, and Ed Davey have all affirmed “trans women are women” or equivalent at some stage, and their parties have shown a callous disregard for the safety, dignity and privacy of women and girls. The Greens believe the Supreme Court ruling is transphobic and expel members holding gender-critical views.

Reform UK has signalled that a Reform government would ban the transitioning of children in primary and secondary schools, and remove gender ideology from the curriculum, replacing it with fact-based teaching. If education is not grounded in truth, it is worthless.

Further, Reform would also halt the medicalisation of children duped into believing that sex can be changed, prioritising evidence-based safeguarding and biological reality. This includes a ban on puberty blockers for minors in favour of non-medical or psychological approaches instead.

Voltaire’s warning holds: believing absurdities can lead to real atrocities. Scotland’s experience shows the urgent need to restore reason before more harm is done.