Nicola Sturgeon says transgender rapists ‘forfeit right to be gender of their choice’

Nicola Sturgeon says transgender rapists "probably forfeit the right to be the gender of their choice", as she conceded she “should have been much more straightforward” on the issue of double rapist Isla Bryson's gender. Reforms which would have allowed transgender people to self-identify as their preferred gender were passed by Holyrood in 2022 but were blocked by Westminster the following year. Afterwards, Bryson was sent to a women's only jail after being convicted of raping two women, before being transferred to a male prison. In an interview with ITV News on Monday (11 August), the former SNP leader said that anyone who commits the “most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice” before going on to admit “that probably was not the best phrase to use”.