A rape crisis charity has dropped its pledge to issue a definition of “woman” despite a trans row causing damage to survivors.
Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) – which receives over £3million in annual funding from the government – said it would no longer publish a definition, despite previously promising to do so after the advice of an independent expert review.
Vicky Ling was commissioned to investigate Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) after a tribunal ruled it was operating an “extreme” version of gender identity theory under the leadership of trans woman Mridul Wadhwa.
Her report found that the centre had “caused damage to some survivors” by failing to protect women-only spaces.
A tribunal ruled ERCC was operating an “extreme” version of gender identity theory under the leadership of trans woman Mridul Wadhwa
SNP
Ling recommended the centre devise and publish a definition of woman/female to be adopted across its network.
The charity previously accepted the recommendation, with chief executive Sandy Brindley saying in September that work on a definition has been ongoing for nearly a year.
However, the charity has now decided to take a different course of action, and is understood to be ensuring there are “dedicated spaces” in rape crisis centres provided for “woman born as women” instead of providing a definition.
Senior RCS insiders have said it would be made very clear which spaces might include trans women.
MORE LIKE THIS:
- Trump signs executive order to BAN transgender people joining military and reinstate troops who rejected Covid vaccines
- Drug dealer avoids deportation despite being jailed five times in UK because his daughter might be transgender
- Transgender children population SURGES as latest research shows scale of gender dysphoria in England
It also claimed that due to the Supreme Court considering a case that concerned the legal definition of women, it would not be appropriate or helpful to issue its own definition.
Scottish Tory shadow equalities minister Tess White claimed women had “once again been let down by an organisation that is supposed to support them”.
She further hit out at RCS, saying they failed to show common sense and had not learned any lessons from past scandals.
White added: “It is unacceptable that RCS still cannot give women reassurance that they will be able to access single-sex spaces at these centres.”
“Ultimately, the SNP’s reckless self-ID policies are to blame for this betrayal of women and girls.”
Campaigners such as Wadhwa, who left ERCC last year after the report was published, claim that any biological male who identifies as female is a woman.
Meanwhile, others insists that sex is immutable and rape crisis centres need to be for biological women only.
The definition was intended to ensure survivors knew whether they might encounter biological males when accessing services described as female-only.
Tess White claimed women had “once again been let down by an organisation that is supposed to support them”
Getty
The Ling Review was ordered last year after it was revealed that former ERCC staff member Roz Adams was bullied out of her job for pushing for clarity on how to respond to women who asked about the sex of a female staff member who became non-binary and adopted a male name.
Wadhwa reportedly came to view Adams as a “bigot and a transphobe”, and instructed staff to simply say there were no men working at the centre.
In 2021, Wadhwa shockingly claimed that “bigoted” rape survivors who might fear biological men should expect to be “challenged on [their] prejudices” at ERCC.
According to The Sunday Post, in internal consultations about new rules, RCS said that a woman can be “anyone who self-identifies as a woman”.
An RCS spokesman said it was in discussions with survivors to ensure any terminology is accessible and understandable.