Editorial: Doug Beattie's motion on trans prison policy will force MLAs to have much-needed debate

Doug Beattie’s call for clarity on the justice department’s policy on transgender prisoners is a welcome step towards an open discussion on the controversial issue.

An Assembly motion by the Ulster Unionist MLA is set to be debated later this month – and it will force not just the minister Naomi Long, but her party and others, to confront a key issue at the heart of the debate: what is a woman?

Mr Beattie’s motion is clear – it says that only biological females should be placed in female prisons, and the same for men. It sounds like an obvious and straightforward policy – but that view is highly contentious within the Alliance Party.

They appear to reject the idea that biological sex is immutable and takes precedence over someone’s own sense of identity. When the Scottish government introduced a policy of self-identification of gender – where someone could change their legal sex without medical oversight – Alliance rejected concerns that sex-based rights would be affected by allowing any man to declare himself a woman.

Paula Bradshaw MLA hailed it as Scotland “leading the way on social justice” and wanted it rolled out across the UK.

A lot has changed since then. The SNP policy was ditched after the UK government blocked it, concerned about its impact on the rest of the country. But aspects of ‘self-ID’ remain through vast swathes of public policy, introduced subtly over many years. The current process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate also raises questions about whether that should override single-sex spaces and women’s safety in places like prisons.

Doug Beattie’s clarity on the issue will force Alliance – as well as many in Sinn Fein and the SDLP – to decide whether they believe someone’s identity trumps the rights of women in places like prisons.