Trans rights support reiterated in manifestopublished at 15:07 BST
15:07 BST
David Henderson
Scotland news correspondent
The last Scottish Parliament saw a drawn-out and difficult debate on sex, gender and trans rights.
The Scottish Greens manifesto shows this issue has not gone away.
Back in September, their two leaders, Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer, told the BBC’s Scotcast that backing trans rights was a red line for their party.
Today, their support remains clear.
The manifesto says there’s a “hate campaign against them”, and the Greens want this addressed through school education, anti-bullying programmes, and greater protection under the criminal law.
There’s also a pledge to ensuring access to “gender-affirming healthcare”, which they claim in their manifesto is effectively denied to some by 200-year-long waiting lists.
This treatment is intended to help people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were registered at birth.
It’s been the subject of intense medical and political debate and has become a polarised culture war issue.
The Scottish Greens also say they’ll continue to call on the UK government to remove its block on gender recognition legislation.
In 2023, Holyrood voted to reform the way transgender people in Scotland could obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate, the document that legally changes a person’s sex on their birth certificate.
The UK Conservative government blocked this change from becoming law, saying it would adversely impact UK equality legislation.
How gender recognition should work remains unresolved in Scotland and was largely parked as an electoral issue until now. The Scottish Greens manifesto shows it’s not been forgotten.