NICOLA Sturgeon has said that she should have paused gender reform legislation.
The comments came in a wide-ranging ITV News interview with the former first minister, which is set to air in full on Monday night, as she prepares to launch her memoir Frankly later in the week.
Sturgeon was first minister when the Scottish Parliament passed its Gender Recognition Reform Bill in 2022, which would allow transgender people to self-identify and simplified the requirements to acquire a gender recognition certificate (GRC), before it was blocked by Westminster from becoming law.
It has since erupted into an ongoing row, with the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that under the Equality Act 2010, “woman” referred to biological sex, and not a transgender woman with a GRC.
Addressing this, Sturgeon said in the interview: “I didn’t anticipate as much as I should, or engage as much as I should, on some of the concerns that might then be triggered.”
She added: “At the point I knew it was becoming, or felt it becoming, as polarised I should have said, ‘Right, okay, let’s pause, let’s take a step back’.
“I fervently believe that the rights of women and the interests of trans people are not irreconcilable at all. I should have taken a step back and said, ‘How do we achieve this?’”
When previously asked about the Supreme Court judgment in May, Sturgeon said: "We are at risk of making the lives of trans people almost unliveable.”
She added: "The Supreme Court judgment by definition is the law of the land. The question for me, and I think for a lot of people, is how that is now translated into practice.
"Can that be done in a way that protects women and also allows trans people to live their lives with dignity and in a safe and accepted way? I think that remains to be seen.
"I think some of the early indications would raise concerns in my mind that we are at risk of making the lives of trans people almost unliveable, and I don't think the majority of people in the country would want to see that.
"It certainly doesn't make a single woman any safer to do that because the threat to women comes from predatory and abusive men."
