THE SCOTTISH Conservatives have been accused of “completely mischaracterising” plans to reform and simplify the process for trans people to change gender.

Plans published by the Scottish Government and supported by all Holyrood parties except the Tories, would lead to the system used by trans people to obtain a certificate legally recognising their acquired gender to be simplified and sped up.

But the Tories have been accused of over-politicising the debate around trans rights after bringing forward plans to “protect women's same-sex spaces” in council-run venues including schools, parks and swimming pools.

The party has been criticised for claiming that “many women feel that their place in society and their safety is under threat” by the plans to reform gender recognition.

Last month, Mr Ross claimed that a trans woman is not a woman and is “a male who has changed her sex but has not changed her gender” and suggested that trans people should not use single-sex spaces.

Mr Ross later said he “misspoke” but stood by his view that “that people can change their gender, they cannot change their sex”.

At today's Holyrood’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee examining the gender recognition plans, Tory MSP Alexander Stewart, raised what he said was “the threat women and girls have when it comes to single women-only spaces”

He added that spaces such as toilets and changing rooms “are the areas people have come across and given examples about the expectation from this bill that will see anything changing”.

But Scottish LibDem leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton has criticised the stance taken by the Conservatives under Mr Ross’s leadership and accused the party of conflating the concerns around safe spaces and women’s rights with technical changes to the process to obtain gender recognition.

He said: “The reforms that the government are proposing that we support are technical, they are small, they do not impact on equalities legislation, they will not impact on access to sex-based spaces or safe spaces.

“But I want to make sure, at the same time, I want to make sure that we allow people who have questions and concerns that we have in mind, to be heard so we can challenge those in a respectful and kind way. I think we just need a bit more kindness in the whole debate.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton added: “I have been very concerned by some of the remarks I’ve heard, particularly from Douglas Ross, on this. I think it’s probably informed. I think some of his remarks have been completely mischaracterising what the legislation seeks to achieve.

“This is about trying to appeal to the extremes of this argument when actually we need to bring people together into a respectful, solemn space where we can discuss this openly and with kindness and there’s no kindness in the Tory approach to this at all.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton he was “very sad” that the plans to reform gender recognition have taken six years since appearing in party manifestos.

He said: “I’m very saddened by the heat and the hate that exists around this. There’s a lot of hyperbole around this as well.

“We as liberals passionately believe in reforming the GRA. Whilst the vast majority of people are born in the gender that matches their biological sex, there are a number of people who are born and will always be born for whom that is not the case.

“That has been recognised in law for the best part of 20 years, but those laws, we now realise are harming people because you should not have to ultimately submit the final judgement of your identify as a person to three strangers you have never met.”

In response to Mr Stewart’s claims over improved trans rights being a threat to women, Stonewall Scotland director Colin Macfarlane said it was “deeply unfortunate there has been misinformation, some of it deliberate, around what the provisions of this bill will mean for women and girls”.

He added: “The evidence would suggest that the introduction of this bill will not have negative impacts on those areas.”

Mr Macfarlane added that some of the “horrible” discourse around conflating gender recognition with single-sex spaces is “the idea that trans people are a threat”.

A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: “It's very naive of Alex Cole-Hamilton to think women's rights will be protected if everyone is just a bit kinder to each other. "If the LibDems don't want to stand up for women's rights, that's up to them."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously insisted that the gender recognition proposal “doesn’t give trans people any more rights, it doesn’t give trans people one single additional right that they have right now nor does it take away from women any of the current existing rights that women have under the Equalities Act.”

Asked whether the plans will change anything about safe spaces, Ms Sturgeon insisted: “No it doesn’t.”

She said: “It doesn’t change anything about safe spaces.”