Joan McAlpine

Joan McAlpine (born 28 January 1962) is a former Scottish journalist and former Scottish National Party politician. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region from 2011 to 2021. McAlpine is known for her opposition to the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and for her advocacy of gender-critical feminism.

Quotes

• We learnt that the government decided in 2011 that the census's sex question should be answered according to self-identification, even if the respondent had no gender recognition certificate. This advice was hidden on the website and was never subject to democratic scrutiny. That's shocking when you think that for almost 200 years sex was uncomplicated, binary and biological. For most people it still is.
• Policy capture is at the root of this fankle, as with many issues around gender identity. Officials only take advice from LGBT stakeholders. They never consider that women might have something to say about legislation which erases them as a biological sex class. In this case they didn't consult statisticians either.
  • "Trans questions on the Scottish census must not be at women’s expense", The Times (13 June 2019)
  • National Records of Scotland were apparently suggesting a third sex option for non-binary people in addition to male and female. Statisticians had said such a proposal risked distorting figures on illness as they affect men and women.

• The thing that finally turned me to my current position was the government’s decision to expand the definition of transgender identity to include cross-dressers who are not trans identified ... It will seem bizarre to many people that men who enjoy cross-dressing are protected from hate crime, but women are not.
  • In a debate (10 March 2021) in the Scottish parliament, as cited in Kathleen Nutt "Scottish Tories vow to repeal controversial Hate Crime Bill in manifesto", The National (Glasgow, 14 March 2021)
  • On the bill which became the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. An amendment tabled by former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont (a campaigner against violence against women) to include the word "sex" in the list of protected characteristics was defeated. Quote dated from the page on the Scottish parliament website.

• The [Scottish] government said its proposal will not diminish the rights of women.
  However, its own draft equality impact assessment evidenced this by citing Bristol University research which . . . suggests that a woman catching sight of a male body in a changing room should be no more distressing than seeing another woman with a mastectomy. Does the government regret citing this research, and do they agree that the comparison is insulting to breast cancer survivors?
  • "Joan McAlpine MSP calls trans rights research 'insult to cancer patients'", The Times (9 January 2023)
  • The Westminster Equality Act 2010 allows separate changing facilities.

• It is feminists influenced by this second wave who question transgender ideology. They speak the uncomfortable truth that men have a statistically higher propensity towards violence including sexual violence — no matter how they identify — and our laws and public institutions must recognise that brutal truth.
  • "Chief Mammy lost out to the Second Wave feminists", The Times (16 February 2023)
  • Nicola Sturgeon, who had just resigned as Scotland's First Minster was nicknamd "Chief Mammy".

• There were assertions made during that meeting that anyone who identifies as a woman could be a rape counsellor or join a group session. And when survivors asked how a woman may feel if she unknowingly disclosed details of her rape to a male counsellor on the telephone… No adequate answer was provided. It shocked me then as it still does now, that given 100 per cent of rapes in Scotland are committed by men this appeared to not be an issue for the head of Rape Crisis Scotland.
  • "How a service set up for traumatised women forgot its core function", Holyrood (29 January 2024)