The scandal-ridden former leader of Scotland has admitted for the first time that it was the public backlash against her woke views on transgenderism that led her to resign from her post last year.
Nicola Sturgeon, the former leader of the leftist-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) and former First Minister — a position roughly equivalent to governor in the United States — revealed for the first time that it was objections over her leftist ideology on gender and her failure to be able to define women as precipitating her decision to resign from office last year.
“I’ve had more abuse hurled at me over the issue of trans rights than probably any other issue I’ve discussed, including Scottish independence probably, so it has been really, really difficult,” Sturgeon said from the Charleston Literary Festival in Sussex over the weekend according to the Daily Telegraph.
The former left-nationalist leader claimed that she felt that the trans debate was being artificially impacted by opinions of her personally, saying that she thought “maybe the politics, the discourse and the debate in Scotland will be a bit more healthy” if she resigned.
Sturgeon acknowledged that it “hasn’t quite worked out that way” but said: “Yes that is why I decided to stand down.”
During her tenure in office, Sturgeon pushed forward some of the most radical transgender policies in Europe, notably legislation to allow anyone to legally change their gender by merely “self-identifying” without any diagnosis from medical professionals.
Following the international controversy surrounding the placement of a biologically male transgender rapist in a female prison in Scotland, Sturgeon sparked widespread outrage and mockery after she struggled to answer if she thought male rapists should be allowed to be imprisoned with women if they claimed to be transgender. Just two weeks later she would resign.
Trans Politics Casualty? Woke-Pushing First Minister Sturgeon Resigns as Support Evaporates https://t.co/Xs7TaBwQIB
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 15, 2023
While the interview debacle was commonly cited at the time as having precipitated her political downfall, it was later revealed that both Sturgeon and her husband were under police investigation over alleged stolen party funds. Peter Murrell, Sturgeon’s husband and former chief executive of the Scottish National Party was charged with embezzlement in April. While Sturgeon herself was also previously arrested, she has not been charged with a crime.
The question of what constitutes womanhood has continued to befuddle leftist politicians in Scotland, with recently installed First Minister John Swinney being ridiculed for his confusing and seemingly contradictory take on the issue.
“I believe a woman is an adult female born as a woman and I also accept that transgender women are defined as women,” he said earlier this month. Yet, despite his woke opinions on transgenderism, Swinney has scrapped plans to launch a legal challenge the decision by Westminster to shut down Sturgeon’s self-identification legislation.
The issue of transgender self-identification does look to be an ongoing issue to the south, however, with the left-wing Labour Party reportedly considering a simplification of the process to legally change one’s gender, potentially allowing just one doctor to sign off on the decision, which critics have noted would lead to a system akin to self-identification given that certain doctors would likely gain reputations of being lenient in handing out gender recognition certificates.
Like Sturgeon, Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer previously came under fire for claiming that “trans women are women” and refusing to say whether women could have “penises” or not. However, unlike Sturgeon, Starmer eventually backtracked on this position, saying last year that women are “adult females”.
“No no no it’s just– ” he responded. “No no no, I just– I don’t– I don’t think that um, discussing this issue in this way helps anyone in the long run.” https://t.co/nYwZrMdHwM
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 30, 2022
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.