How the ‘Isla Bryson’ scandal exposed the trans cult

It was just over a year ago that Scottish comedian and activist Elaine Miller lifted her skirt and flashed a fulsome, furry pubic wig to Scottish politicians. Addressing the parliamentarians in Holyrood who had just voted to pass the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, Miller shouted: ‘If this parliament will not respect the rights of women then you have no decency… And if you will not be decent, then I will be indecent.’

Miller’s cunning stunt was a last resort. It followed years of concerned citizens, including some inside Holyrood, desperately warning against the bill. Had it been enacted, the law would have made it significantly easier for people ‘identifying’ as the opposite sex to obtain a gender-recognition certificate, removing the requirement for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and reducing the time adults are expected to have lived as their new gender from two years to just three months. It would have also lowered the age at which someone could apply for a gender-recognition certificate, from 18 to 16.

The gender bill would have undoubtedly put women and girls at risk, allowing men into women’s spaces on the basis of ‘self-identification’ alone. But Nicola Sturgeon and her allies refused to listen to these warnings. Indeed, the then first minister derisively dismissed the bill’s opponents as ‘transphobic… misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well’.

Miller might have given Scottish politicians both an earful and an eyeful, but 12 months on she and her fellow feminist campaigners have retained their dignity and been thoroughly vindicated. Meanwhile, the politicians who pushed to allow men to be legally recognised as women with the stroke of a pen have been exposed as what the Scots might call ‘sleekit wee bastards’.

Now, the campaign to bring gender self-ID to Scotland remains in limbo. And it has been in limbo for a long time. In January 2023, the bill was halted by the UK government’s Scottish secretary, Alister Jack, who argued that the law would have had too large an impact on the rest of the UK. It is now up to the current Scottish first minister, Humza Yousaf, to decide whether or not to launch a fresh legal challenge to this.

The trans issue undoubtedly played a role in bringing down Sturgeon. She resigned as first minister in February, just before she and other senior SNP figures were interviewed by police over the party’s finances. But her departure from high office was also prompted by the controversy over the gender bill and the horrifying, well-publicised case of the violent double rapist, Adam Graham (aka Isla Bryson), who, it was revealed, had been housed in a women’s prison.

Sturgeon resigned a month after Bryson’s tattooed face was first seen staring out of Scottish newspapers, as his chilling story became public. Before the ink was dry on the gender bill, his case vindicated the gender-critical campaigners who warned that treating transwomen as women would mean putting rapists in women’s prisons. Indeed, Bryson’s passage through the justice system proved that this had already been taking place.

When Bryson arrived in court for his hearing, he was photographed with long fake nails and a blonde bob wig poking out of his hooded coat. Following his sentencing, he was detained in Cornton Vale, a women’s prison. Throughout the case, he was referred to by both the prison system and most of the media as though he were a woman. That he had conveniently discovered he was trans after being charged apparently escaped many journalists’ notice.

The story got worse and worse. It later emerged that Bryson had joined a beauty course at Ayrshire College while out on bail. The young women he trained alongside, who were unaware of his pending court appearance, had to take off their clothes in front of him for spray-tan sessions. According to the Telegraph, students described Bryson as ‘overpowering’ and ‘disruptive’. He was eventually asked to leave the course.

All this took place before the gender bill had even been passed into law. Indeed, sections of the Scottish criminal-justice system, unbeknownst to most Scots, had been trialling self-ID for years. The bill would have solidified this situation and made it much, much worse.

After the Isla Bryson story broke, the Scottish public began to ask why their government was keen to make it even easier for rapists to claim to be women. Some began to query how social graces to accommodate a tiny minority of trans people had already become de facto law. Even back in December 2022, before the gender bill had been voted on in Holyrood, the Scottish public were clearly wary about the proposed law. A YouGov poll found that 60 per cent opposed it.

In January, when questioned about Bryson’s incarceration in a women’s prison, Sturgeon was unable to clearly say whether this double rapist was male or female. For the first time in her career, this usually polished performer floundered and struggled to justify her position. Not long after that, she was gone.

The SNP is still haunted not only by the case of Bryson, but also by those of other dangerous men who claim to be women. These include ‘Scotland’s most dangerous prisoner’, Tiffany Scott (aka Andrew Burns), as well as crossdressing paedophile Andrew Miller.

When it comes to trans issues, first minister Humza Yousaf is hardly much of an improvement on Sturgeon. In his past role as justice secretary, Yousaf was a proud advocate of gender self-identification and was also the architect of Scotland’s draconian Hate Crime Act, which when enacted next year will likely criminalise opponents of gender ideology. However, he has since acknowledged that Sturgeon’s reforms have ‘caused some division’ within his party and says he is ‘keen to work with those who have got real concerns’. Notably, he condemned the trans activists who assembled to mob women attending the FiLiA Women’s Rights Conference in October.

It’s easy to see why lefty politicians fell into the gender trap. For years, LGBTQIAEtc lobby groups have been dressing up the demands of the dangerous and delusional as the new frontier of civil rights. Sturgeon and her colleagues were desperate to be seen as visionaries – as on ‘the right side of history’.

But in 2023, the Scottish public saw the true face of trans rights under all that gaudy make-up. The reality that stared back at them was that a minority of dangerous men will use whatever tools they can to prey on the vulnerable – and that politicians have now decided it is ‘progressive’ to help them do so.

Sturgeon’s fall from grace is a stark warning to those in power. Pandering to trans activists can only end in tears.

Jo Bartosch is a journalist campaigning for the rights of women and girls.

Picture by: YouTube.