In Britain, the debate over transgender rights has become increasingly contested, with prominent voices including the writer J.K. Rowling rallying opposition to the Scottish legislation and other proposals on gender recognition. An initially popular candidate last year for the leadership of Britain’s governing Conservative Party, Penny Mordaunt, lost support from the right in part because of her involvement in a previous effort to gauge opinion on the issue.
Last year Britain’s health service announced that it was shutting down the country’s only youth gender clinic — which had also become a focus of criticism — in favor of a more distributed and comprehensive network of medical care for adolescents seeking hormones and other gender treatments.
Ms. Sturgeon’s supporters are likely to present Mr. Sunak’s move as an illustration of the need for Scotland to pursue independence — her main political objective. Scots voted against becoming an independent nation in a 2014 referendum, but Ms. Sturgeon has portrayed London’s refusal to grant a second vote on the question as anti-democratic.
During his short time in Downing Street, Mr. Sunak has so far dialed down his Conservative Party’s rhetoric on divisive cultural issues, but Monday’s move is likely to be well received by most of his supporters.
The opposition Labour Party may be more divided on transgender rights. Its leader, Keir Starmer, has said that he supports self declaration by transgender people but, on Sunday, he told the BBC that he had reservations about the Scottish legislation, particularly the lowering of the age limit to 16.
On Monday, Shami Chakrabarti, a Labour member of the House of Lords and civil liberties campaigner, said that while she was supported the objectives of the Scottish legislation, it raised legal issues, and that the government might “have a point” in challenging it.
“Whilst I am sympathetic to the change that is made to protect the rights of trans people in Scotland, I think we may have a clash between the position in the U.K.-wide legislation and the position in Scotland,” Ms. Chakrabarti, who is a former shadow attorney general, told the BBC.
