CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Vanwaetermeulen, Marie-Alix |
|---|---|
| Title | The Scottish Unicorn: trans inclusion backlash, anti-gender ideology and unlikely alliances |
| Summary | Epistemological choices are at the heart of public policy, especially around matters of identity. While numerous countries have taken steps to integrate human rights-based policies for transgender inclusion, this has not been without backlash. The Scottish debate around the Gender Recognition Act reform has mobilised an unlikely alliance of opponents, namely women’s rights groups and Christian organisations. While the GRA reform arguably only represents a relatively incremental change for transgender inclusion in society, backlash has been strong since 2017. The reform prioritises self-identification, in practice demedicalising and depathologising transgender identities. Using a qualitative framing and problematisation analysis of organisations submissions to the public open consultation, this thesis has identified the following. Opponents have framed the reform as a zero-sum game between women’s rights and transgender rights, putting vulnerable women at the risk of facing more violence. The protection and integrity of single-sex spaces is depicted as being under threat. Backlash to the reform fits within wider transnational trends of anti-gender ideology. The Scottish case of anti-ideology mobilisation remains singular, resisting political labels as the coalition from opponents are from both left-leaning and right-leaning policy entrepreneurs. This mandates further research, especially in understanding if this coalition of populistic non-aligned anti-gender ideology can sustain overtime beyond the GRA reform. |
| Supervisor | Zentai, Violetta |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/vanwaetermeulen_mari.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University