Police Scotland has come under fire after circulating internal communications that appeared to liken the gender-critical movement to Nazi ideology. The message, shared with officers during Trans+ History Week, stated: “Gender binary was a key feature of the Nazi racial policies,” and asked whether the gender-critical movement was “an echo of how past hostilities arose”.
Dated May 2025, the email is understood to have been authored by a staff member responsible for LGBTQ+ liaison. It begins: “This is a week to learn and celebrate the rich and long history of trans, non-binary, gender-diverse and intersex people. At a time when anti-trans rhetoric is on the rise, this can be a week where we can uplift the trans community and send a clear message – trans people have always been here.”
“Like many noteworthy events,” it continues, “this week was founded to start at this particular time deliberately, in recognition of the anniversary of the Nazi raid on the world’s first ever trans clinic in 1933. Books and paperwork were burned as part of the Nazi’s [sic] targeting of queer communities. Gender binary was a key feature of the Nazi racial policies.”
The message concludes: “Right now, some 88 years later, the gender critical movement has a strong voice and presence. Is this movement an echo of how past hostilities arose and does it mean we have failed to understand the lessons we should have collectively learned from our shared history?”
This language closely echoes material published by Stonewall, which describes Trans+ History Week as marking “the anniversary of the Nazi raid on the world’s first ever trans clinic in 1933”. Police Scotland, however, says it withdrew from a diversity scheme run by the charity in 2023.
The comparison drew immediate criticism from politicians, police veterans and free speech campaigners. Scottish Conservative (and FSU Scottish Advisory Council member) MSP Murdo Fraser described the language as “a deeply offensive comparison” and said: “People with concerns about the SNP’s flawed gender self-ID plans shouldn’t be vilified for standing up for common sense.”
Former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher also weighed in, warning: “This is what happens when the police get involved in contested political issues. Police neutrality existed for a reason. The sooner it returns the better.”
Dr Lucy Hunter Blackburn, of the gender-critical policy group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie, said it should serve as “a wake-up call to senior management about the culture and leadership around sex and gender in the force”.
Gender-critical feminism centres on the defence of women’s sex-based rights – such as single-sex spaces, services, and sporting categories – on the basis of biological sex. In recent years, those who hold such beliefs have found themselves at the centre of an increasingly hostile climate, facing campaigns of vilification, professional repercussions, and attempts to silence dissent. Much of that hostility stems from a clash with trans rights activists, who argue that self-declared gender identity should override biological sex in policy and law.
That tension was, in fact, central to For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers, in which the UK Supreme Court ruled that the protected characteristic of “sex” in the Equality Act refers to biological sex – a position now endorsed by the country’s highest court, but likened in Police Scotland’s internal email to, er, Nazi ideology.
By curious coincidence, the email was issued ahead of a “roundtable” event hosted by Police Scotland at Tulliallan, its headquarters in Fife, bringing together around 20 community groups and staff diversity associations to discuss the implications of that very Supreme Court ruling.
In light of the hyperbolic language circulated internally, one could be forgiven for thinking that for Police Scotland, the roundtable was merely a formality.
No wonder this taxpayer funded body – bound, as it is, by a statutory duty to remain impartial and uphold the law – has since confirmed that the email had been withdrawn. “The content does not reflect the views of Police Scotland and has been removed,” a spokesperson said, adding: “Advice will be given around the use of language.”
Perhaps some ‘advice’ should also be given on Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights – as incorporated into UK law via the Human Rights Act – and the lawful boundaries of free expression.
There’s more on this story here.
