Watch: Sturgeon refuses to apologise to women over gender ruling

Well, well, well. Nicola Sturgeon has finally broken her silence over the Supreme Court judgment that backed the biological definition of a woman. Speaking to journalists in Holyrood today, Sturgeon insisted that while she accepts the ruling from the highest court in the land, she remains concerned about the impact on the lives of transgender people. And when she was asked whether she would now apologise to women’s rights campaigners – who she has previously criticised while pushing through her gender reforms – Scotland’s former first minister declined. How curious…

Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry previously called for an apology from the party’s former Dear Leader in the Spectator, writing that: ‘No less a person than Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon called women right’s campaigners like us bigots, transphobes, racists and homophobes. An apology to the women of Scotland is in order.’ Yet no apology came. Today, the ex-FM was pressed by a reporter: ‘For Women Scotland and Joanna Cherry feel that their views were ignored during the passage of the GRR bill and say that you owe them an apology following the Supreme Court ruling. I just wondered what your response would be?’ Replying curtly, Sturgeon responded: ‘On both of those, I fundamentally disagree – fundamentally and respectfully disagree.’

Going on, the Queen of the Nats told journalists that when it came to her gender bill – which would have removed the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to self-identify as a different gender, and lowered the age at which a person could change their legal gender to 16 – ‘the views of all opinions were taken account of in the run up to parliament, not the SNP but parliament as a whole, with support from, I think, across all parties for that legislation’. She added:

I’ve always actually recognised the different views on this, but I think it’s important that respect runs in both directions… For every one that contacts me or who I know personally with concerns about this, there are probably another two who have a different view. 

Talk about unrepentant, eh? Watch the clip here: