Guido tips his hat to Peter Smith for tying Nicola Sturgeon in multiple knots over the trans prisoner row. Asked simply “are all trans women, women?” – with the Scottish Prison Service having initially sent a double rapist to a women’s-only prison last week – Sturgeon essentially claimed Smith was asking the wrong question. These are not the droids you are looking for…
Sturgeon: “That is not the point that we are dealing with here… Trans women are women, but in the present context there is no automatic right for a trans woman…”
Smith: “So there are contexts where a trans woman is not a woman?”
Sturgeon: “No, there [are] circumstances when a trans woman will be housed in the male prison estate…”
Smith: “Is there any context in which a woman born as a woman will be housed in the male estate?”
Sturgeon: “Look, we’re talking here about trans women…”
Smith: “And I’m now asking about women born as women.”
Sturgeon: “I don’t think there are circumstances there, but…”
Smith: “So it’s different for trans women?”
Sturgeon: “Well, yes…”
Got there in the end…