It was often tedious, long-winded and ill-informed – but after a gruelling session of amendments being tabled – the Scottish Government plans to modernise the process for trans people to obtain legal gender recognition took a step closer to being a reality.

Time was always against yesterday'sdebate, with more than 150 amendments being squeezed into one afternoon (and evening) of Holyrood business.

The Conservatives, who bluntly oppose the reforms, complained that not enough time was being given to consider the final amendments properly – with their ultimate goal to delay the legislation until after the Christmas recess.

But the tactic by the Tories involved more than an hour of precious chamber time being wasted by business motions put forward by Conservative MSPs in an apparent bid to hold up the debate.

Tory equalities spokesperson, Rachael Hamilton, even found herself having to say “sorry to delay proceedings” as she raised one of a flurry of excruciating points of order.

READ MORE: 16 and 17-year-olds to be eligible for gender recognition despite SNP rebellion

The frustration, palpable before a single amendment had been considered, boiled over when Labour’s Neil Bibby accused the Conservatives of “wasting time”.

The debate that followed was, unsurprisingly, fractious.

SNP backbenchers became comfortable picking holes in government policy, not something Nicola Sturgeon’s MSPs typically find in their job description.

READ MORE: Gender expert reaffirms UN's self-ID support ahead of crunch vote

Government ministers were seen nodding along in favour of points being made by Conservative MSP Jamie Greene, who openly supports the principles of the bill, but left shaking their head at some of their backbench colleagues.

The meeting was forced to be suspended some three and a half hours in after a protester shouted “shame on you”, adding that “there’s no democracy in here” following an amendment that would have prevented sex offenders from obtaining a gender recognition certificate, was narrowly rejected by MSPs.

Yesterday's debate, in truth, made very little substantive changes to the legislation – the amendments that were agreed toughen up safeguards and address concerns over loopholes – approved to ensure the legislation makes it over the final hurdle tomorrow.

READ MORE: MSPs consider gender reform bill changes ahead of crunch vote

A bid to stop one of the main principles of the bill, lowering the minimum age from 18 to 16, was always destined to fail – despite a host of SNP backbenchers adding their voice to the cause.

The technical tweaks and amendments agreed yesterday and at stage two of the debate are quite fitting of the legislation itself.

The gender recognition reforms, in their simplest state, make a technical change to how one of the most marginalised communities can obtain recognition for their gender.

It will make no changes to what a gender recognition certificate does, merely the process for obtaining one.

In a report published last month by the commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatovic, she warned that “public discourse has become particularly heated around possible changes to the framework for legal gender recognition in the UK”, specifically highlighting the Scottish Government’s plans.

Yesterday's often over-heated debate gave snapshot of some of that division.