'There are only two genders', Scottish Government says

Equalities Minister Kaukab Stewart said the Government’s position is there are only two genders - male and female - in line with Scottish law. This comes after the Government issued guidance to statisticians collating data from the 2022 Census.

In the guidance, the Government listed the 24 most common responses to the open census question on gender identity.

The categories included cisgender, trans man, trans woman, non-binary, trans (not otherwise specified), agender, trans masculine, trans feminine, genderfluid, genderqueer, intersex, assigned female at birth, assigned male at birth, pangender, bigender, autigender, androgynous, gender non-conforming, detransitioned, neutral, demigender male, demigender female and demigender.

Ms Stewart said this guidance should not, however, be interpreted as there being 24 different genders.

Rachael Hamilton, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said the Government was wasting time and taxpayers’ money on “fringe obsessions” by classifying so many different genders.

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During general questions at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, Ms Hamilton said: “I am pleased to hear [Ms Stewart] agrees there are two genders, but official guidance from the SNP claims there are dozens of different genders.

“This doesn’t make sense in mainstream Scotland.

“It is ridiculous for this to be the focus of the Scottish Government. Why is the Scottish Government wasting so much time and resources on fringe obsessions?”

In response, the equalities minister said: “The Scottish Government didn’t claim that. The Scottish Government updated its guidance for public bodies on sex and gender to include a coding framework for free text responses to help in the Census 2022.

“This framework shouldn’t be interpreted to mean there is a particular number of genders - it is only a guide to classify responses to the trans status question.”