The Scottish Government’s consultation on their Draft Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill ends at 5pm on Wednesday 20th March 2013. You can read our Scottish Transgender Alliance consultation response at:

http://www.scottishtrans.org/Uploads/Resources/sta_response_equal_marriage.pdf

On 6th March 2013, a court case was heard in the Edinburgh High Court where a Scottish trans man was accused of two counts of ‘obtaining sexual intimacy by fraud’ for not disclosing his gender history and real age to two teenage girls. He entered a guilty plea, meaning he will face jail time. Sentencing has been deferred pending background reports.

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/man-%E2%80%98guilty%E2%80%99-fraud-not-telling-girlfriend-he-was-trans070313

The Scottish Transgender Alliance is very concerned about this case and the message the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is sending to trans people. The Scottish Transgender Alliance strongly oppose any criminalisation of trans people for not revealing their gender history to sexual partners. Obviously there are other factors involved in this case and other details which we may not know of. However we have requested an urgent meeting to clarify the position of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service on this. We have also sent a letter to the Lord Advocate expressing our concerns.

If you share our concerns, please consider signing our online petition which calls upon Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to urgently work with trans equality organisations to address the concerns of trans people that they risk imprisonment simply for non-disclosure of their gender reassignment status to sexual partners.