Edinburgh, Scotland.- A transgender woman convicted in Scotland of rape will not be held in a women’s prison, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Thursday, after two days of controversy.
Isla Bryson, formerly Adam Graham, was convicted Tuesday of the rape of two women in 2016 and 2019 before they transitioned into a woman.
Justice will soon dictate its sentence, pending which it must be imprisoned. And given her crimes, some worried that she would be confined to a women’s prison.
“Given the legitimate concerns of the public and Members of Parliament in this case, I can confirm to Parliament that this detainee will not be held at Cornton Vale Prison for Women,” Sturgeon announced.
Parliamentarians from different parties had expressed concern for the safety of the other prisoners. The Scottish prison authorities ensured for their part that the decision of where to detain a transgender person is always made on an individual basis, assessing the risk and need.
“A transgender woman never has the automatic right to serve her sentence in a women’s prison,” Sturgeon said, after a spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he “understood the concerns” of those who opposed Bryson doing so. .
This controversy takes place at a time when the British central government has just blocked a law passed by the Scottish regional Parliament to facilitate the recognition of gender change.
This clashes with criticism from feminist militants who denounce the risk that sexual predators take advantage of it to access places reserved for women, despite the guarantees provided by the text.
Sturgeon’s pro-independence government accused Sunak of politically instrumentalizing the issue to limit the autonomous powers of Scottish MPs and LGBTQ+ activists denounced an attack by British Conservatives.
