Tory education secretary Gillian Keegan says 16 not ‘too young’ for gender recognition
Education minister Gillian Keegan has backed the UK government’s guidance for teachers, which is expected to see schools out trans pupils to their parents. (Anadolu Agency / Getty Images / Rasid Necati Aslim)
Gillian Keegan said she supported the right to gender recognition for trans 16-year-olds, before falling in line behind the government.
On Monday (January 16), the UK government announced it would block Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform bill, which sought to make it easier for trans people to update the sex marker on their birth certificates while opening up the process up to 16 and 17-year-olds for the first time.
Amid intense backlash from the LGBTQ+ community, on Tuesday (January 17), education secretary Gillian Keegan appeared on Sky News and said she did not think 16 was too young for people to affirm their gender.
The minister, who is the MP for Chichester, was asked by presenter Kay Burley if she “would be content for children in your schools, at 16, to be able to say that they wanted to change their gender”.
Keegan initially dodged the question and said “we need to be sensitive” when it comes to children and called it a “tricky area to get right”, before adding that the government would publish guidance.
When pressed by the presenter on whether 16-year-olds are too young to affirm their gender, she clarified: “No, I don’t actually.
“I was working at 16, I was paying tax at 16, I could make decisions for myself at 16 but it is not really about what I think. It’s how we make sure we get that right balance of supporting children, but also making sure that what they’re getting taught in schools is age-appropriate.”
However, in another interview Keegan backed the decision to block the bill, telling the BBC the country could not have “two competing gender and equality legislations”.
She then told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I felt able to take decisions for myself at 16. But of course I was … I’d grown up quite quickly and I was actually working full-time at 16.
“So, no, I have not got a difference of opinion. Actually, I don’t have a strong opinion. My strong opinion is that we need to treat this very carefully, very sensitively, supporting children all the way along,” the Guardian reported.
Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform bill would have streamlined the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate, which allows a trans person to correct the sex marker on their birth certificate, get married or enter into a civil partnership as their true gender, and have their identity recorded correctly on their death certificate.
It would have removed the requirement of a medical diagnosis, and cut down the amount of time a person must wait before they can receive a GRC from two years to a few months.
Scottish secretary Alister Jack confirmed he will use a Section 35 order under the Scotland Act to prevent the Scottish bill from becoming law because he is “concerned that this legislation would have an adverse impact on the operation of Great Britain-wide equalities legislation”. Scottish politicians and experts agree that the bill would not interfere with the UK Equality Act.
This will be the first-ever use of a Section 35 order since the devolution of power to the Scottish parliament under the Scotland Act of 1998.
The order gives the UK government the power to intervene on bills “which the secretary of state has reasonable grounds to believe would be incompatible with any international obligations or the interest of defence, or national security”.
PinkNews has contacted Gillian Keegan for comment.
