Non-binary people's experiences in Scotland: evidence review

Communities

Evidence throughout this chapter demonstrates that non-binary people can experience discrimination within place-based communities, such as street harassment, and evidence suggests that local areas may not be supportive of non-binary people’s identities by not providing appropriate facilities.

LGBT Youth Scotland’s 2022 study^[41] demonstrated a mixed picture of what it is like to be non-binary in Scotland. The report found that 67% of participants believed that Scotland is a good place for LGBTI young people to live. However, this is a decrease from 2017 figures^[42], where 81% of LGBTI participants agreed with this statement. One participant stated, “Scotland is pretty welcoming for queer people, it just depends on where in the country you are and who is around you”, pg. 13. This quote demonstrates a nuanced experience depending on the nature of the geographic community in which a young person finds themselves. There also appeared to be a difference in perception about how welcoming participants’ local areas are for LGBTI young people to live, with 62% of participants living in urban areas agreeing with this statement, whereas only 36% of those in suburban and rural areas agreed^[43]. It is not clear in this survey why there has been a decrease in this perception and whether this is found in disaggregated data for non-binary people.

Research suggests that trans and non-binary people experience street harassment due to their gender identity. Stonewall Scotland^[44] highlighted that 52% of non-binary people^[vii] in their study adapted the way they dressed because they were worried about harassment. A more recent 2021 UK wide survey^[viii], found that 73% of non-binary respondents experienced transphobic harassment on the street from strangers^[45]. However, these studies do not disclose the type of communities that the participants live in or any other influencing factors that may be involved.

Further, facilities within place-based communities often discriminate against people identifying as non-binary. The Equality Network highlighted in 2015 that there are minimal gender-neutral toilet facilities in communities for non-binary people, and that there is a general lack of understanding of non-binary people’s issues within Scottish society^[46]. More information about how this situation has changed since 2015 is required.

Harassment, and lack of gender-neutral spaces or facilities may highlight some of the reasons for the decrease in perception that Scotland is welcoming to LGBT people, however further research is required to gain a direct and fuller understanding of why this perception has decreased.