The police think you’re a ‘Nazi’ if you believe in biology

If you have ever wondered why the police ever thought it acceptable to investigate a journalist for her gender-critical beliefs, arrest a woman for ‘misgendering’ or record a non-crime hate incident for a trans-sceptical limerick, then an internal document circulated by Police Scotland may offer a clue. Apparently, some officers genuinely believe that people who believe in biology are really just like the Nazis.

The Daily Mail this week revealed an internal document by Police Scotland, which was written to mark ‘Trans+ History Week’ from 5 to 11 May. It states that a belief in the ‘gender binary’ – that is, the scientific truth that there are only two sexes in humans – was a ‘key feature’ of the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany. ‘Right now, some 88 years later’, it continues, ‘the gender-critical movement has a strong voice and presence’. It then asks whether this movement is ‘an echo of how past hostilities arose’. It suggests that allowing gender-critical beliefs to flourish unchecked would represent a failure to ‘understand the lessons we should have collectively learned from our shared history’.

This isn’t a line lifted from a blue-haired student’s Bluesky account – it is from a document circulated by a national police force, which has powers to arrest and detain people. You could hardly ask for clearer evidence that the police have abandoned any pretense of impartiality and that officers today have become uniformed activists.

Even more galling is that the ‘Nazi’ document was circulated ahead of a high-level meeting between Police Scotland and various gender-critical groups. This was organised in the wake of the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on gender in the Equality Act. This ought to have been a moment for the police to rebuild trust with women. To show they have taken their concerns seriously, and will also take the law seriously. Instead, they were circulating a document likening those campaigners (whose views are actually shared by the overwhelming majority of the public) to actual, literal Nazis.

Police Scotland has since pulled the document and promised to seek further ‘advice’ on language. But the damage has been done. It is now abundantly clear where the police stand. They have sided with activists who have neither truth nor the public on their side. Dare I say, by comparing feminist truth-tellers to Nazis, Police Scotland have put themselves on the wrong side of history.

Georgina Mumford is a spiked intern.