POLICE Scotland has received a number of complaints about a woman who “flashed” MSPs during last week’s vote on the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
There were mixed emotions in the Holyrood public gallery last Thursday as parliament backed the legislation.
Supporters of the new Act, which aims to make it easier for a trans person to obtain a gender recognition certificate, cheered and applauded.
While critics shouted “shame on you” at the MSPs. One woman lifted their skirt and showed what initially appeared to be her genitals.
The woman shouted, “if you are not going to be decent, I am going to be indecent.”
However, it later transpired that she had been wearing some form of fake pubic wig.
According to the Scotsman, police did not arrest the individual immediately, however, the force has since received complaints and enquiries are ongoing.
Meanwhile, it emerged on Christmas Eve that Labour education spokesperson Michael Marra was given special permission to miss Thursday’s vote.
The North East MSP had long been critical of certain parts of the legislation.
He told The Courier he could not vote for the final bill: “After negotiations with the whips, I agreed not to cast the vote against the position taken in good faith and after considerable careful consideration by my colleagues.”
Mr Marra added: “I have supported reform of gender recognition laws and voted in favour of reform at stage one in Parliament. I made clear at that point that the bill required significant amendment.
“I attempted to amend the bill at stage two and stage three. The very limited changes accepted by the government were insufficient.
“I was particularly concerned at the lack of safeguards against bad faith actors and the poor response to concerns voiced by the UN Rapporteur for violence against women and girls.
Mr Marra said there were parts of the bill that were “incoherent and which the Cabinet Secretary could not defend in Parliament”.
“I do believe a path of reform that protected trans people's rights and women's rights was possible, but it was not the path chosen by the government.”
According to the paper, party bosses allowed him to not vote as it was felt by senior figures that his work on the education brief was too important to throw away.
However, fellow Labour MSPs Claire Baker and Carol Mochan were both forced to quit their frontbench posts after voting against the legislation.
There was also a sizable rebellion in the SNP, with nine of the party’s MSPs voting against the Bill.
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