Non-Binary Working Group - Gendered Law Sub-Group minutes: 1 December 2021

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

• Peter Hope-Jones, Gender Recognition Unit, Scottish Government
• Simon Stockwell, Family Law, Scottish Government
• Neil Meehan, Hate Crime, Scottish Government
• Claire Martin, Gender Recognition Unit, Scottish Government

Group members

• Vic Valentine, Scottish Trans (Chair)
• Dr Ben Vincent, The Open University
• Megan Snedden, Stonewall Scotland
• Katrina Mitchell, LGBT Health & Wellbeing
• Dr Carolynn Gray, The University of the West of Scotland
• Dr Peter Dunne, The University of Bristol

Secretariat

• Laurie Donaldson, Equality and Inclusion Division, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Key discussion points

The group discussed:

• importance of non-binary gender recognition and time frames for achieving this
• waiting five years would lead to waiting almost a decade for this to change, which would be too long, especially for young people
• varied ideas of what non-binary gender recognition was and how best to make recognition meaningful
• the first consultation on GRA Reform in 2017 mentioned a book of non-binary identity and that this option was unpopular
• recommending further research into non-binary equality
• what non-binary legal recognition would look like in the day-to-day lives of non-binary people
• any recommendations around post-legislative scrutiny requiring provisions in the GRA Reform Bill would need to be picked up as amendments as the recommendations would likely be presented to Ministers after the Bill was introduced to Parliament