Rapists like Isla Bryson 'probably forfeit right to be chosen gender', says Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon has said anybody who rapes a woman “probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice”.

In the first television interview ahead of the publication of her memoir this week, the former First Minister of Scotland struggled to answer questions about trans double rapist and prisoner Isla Bryson.

Bryson, 34, was jailed in February 2023 after being convicted of raping two women, crimes which were committed while living as a man, Adam Graham.

After being convicted at the High Court in Glasgow, Bryson was sent to women’s prison Cornton Vale – as per Scottish Prison Service policy – before later moving to the male prison estate.

“We’d lost all sense of rationality in this debate…. I’m partly responsible for that”
Nicola Sturgeon

Opposition politicians accused the Scottish Government of botching its handling of the row over Bryson.

Sturgeon’s gender reform legislation in particular was criticised for making it easier for trans people to self-identify before Westminster blocked it.

Asked by ITV News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham why she became unstuck over questions about the gender of the rapist, Sturgeon said: “Isla Bryson identified as a woman.

“I think what I would say now is anybody who commits the most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice.”

After pausing, Sturgeon added: “That probably was not the best phrase to use…”

Asked why she doesn’t simply say Isla Bryson is a biological male:

“They are a biological male but that’s about whether. it gets back into the self ID thing. I should have been much more straightforward, I wasn’t, but that’s because of the debate. We’d lost all sense of rationality in this debate. I’m partly responsible for that.”

Panic attack over 2014 Independence Referendum white paper

The former SNP leader also spoke about her “panic attack” over the SNP’s referendum white paper in 2014.

“I remember an evening which I just suddenly had this overwhelming sense of impossibility,” Sturgeon said.

“I can’t get this to the point it needs to be at. It’s so unwieldy. It’s so difficult.

“And I just remember having what I can only describe as a panic attack. I was sobbing on the floor of my office at home and just my heart was racing.”

She also described her “cold fury” towards Alex Salmond over his refusal to fully engage on the white paper.

“He really didn’t engage in the work of the drafting or the compilation of the White Paper at all. He was the leader, he was the First Minister, and he hadn’t read it,” she said.

“He hadn’t read it. He’d maybe read bits. I don’t even know if he’d read bits of it. I knew I was going to have to sit him down and say, ‘Look, you’re going to have to read this, and you’re going to have to tell me now if there are bits you want to change, because it has to be signed off’.

“He told me he was going on a trade mission to China. I don’t think I’d ever felt as much cold fury at him as I did in that moment. It just seemed to me like an abdication of responsibility.”

Sturgeon reveals first tattoo and says it won’t be the last

Last week, Sturgeon revealed she had had her first-ever tattoo during an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe.

STV News revealed the MSP now has a wrist tattoo in the shape of an infinity symbol with an arrow on the end.

Asked about it by Etchingham, Sturgeon says the ink won’t be her last.

“Midlife crisis alert,” Sturgeon says.

“What it is, is known really only to me, but I’ll give you a kind of sense of it. It’s kind of an infinity symbol with an arrow, and I came up with the design myself.

“In summary, what it signifies to me is strength, resilience and continuing to move forward, even when it feels impossible. And it might not be my last one now that I’ve got the taste for it.”

Nicola Sturgeon: The Interview will be broadcast on Monday, August 11 at 7pm on STV and STV Player.

An extended version of the interview will be available on STV Player in the following days.

Frankly by Nicola Sturgeon, published by Pan Macmillan, is available from Thursday, August 14.