The mother of transgender double rapist Isla Bryson has declared: “I believe you have to be born a woman to be a woman.”
Bryson, 32, was sentenced to eight years in prison in February 2023 after raping two women in West Dunbartonshire and Glasgow.
The sex attacker was charged with the crimes as Adam Graham, but changed gender while awaiting trial and took the name Isla Bryson.
The case sparked public outrage, including from Harry Potter author JK Rowling, after Bryson was sent to the all-female Cornton Vale prison on the outskirts of Stirling, before later being moved to a men’s prison.
Janet Bryson, who refers to her son as “my son”, has now waded into the controversy, telling the Sunday Mail: “I think you have to be born a woman to be a woman.” No wig, dress or amount of makeup makes you (sic) a woman.
“You can say you are a woman, but being a woman depends on biology and how you are born.”
Ms Bryson made the surprising comments as she tries to help Scottish feminist activists trying to win a landmark legal case at the Supreme Court.
The group For Women Scotland last week urged the Supreme Court to confirm that sex was “immutable” and could not be changed by gender recognition certificates.
Isla Bryson (pictured) was sentenced to eight years in prison last February for raping two women
Bryson’s case came amid a controversial dispute over former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s plan for a gender self-identification law, which would have allowed anyone aged 16 or over to obtain a GRC by signing a statement.
The protest over Bryson’s sending to a women’s prison contributed to the end of her tenure as Prime Minister.
Mrs Bryson also rejected the claim that Bryson wanted to become a woman from the age of four.
She told the Sunday Mail: “My son never expressed any desire to want to be a girl, nor did he dress differently or ask to be called by any name other than Adam while growing up,” she said. “Never, not at the age of four or at any other age.”
Mrs Bryson has previously said the eight-year sentence imposed on her son was not enough and he should have been locked up for at least 20 years.
Last week, Scottish Government lawyers told the High Court that a person with a GRC is “recognized by law” as having changed sex.
Ruth Crawford KC told the Supreme Court that a person would “become the sex of their acquired gender” when they had a GRC.
The judges asked her how that squared with physical problems that affect people born to women, such as pregnancy or cervical screening.
The sex attacker was charged with the crimes as Adam Graham, but changed gender while awaiting trial and took the name Isla Bryson.
He said the “pregnant man” issue was “very clearly a deep political waters issue” that should be left to parliament to resolve or treated as a “question of fact” independently of the GRC.
In a written submission to the court, the Scottish Government said protections for pregnant women in the Equality Act 2010 could also apply to a “pregnant man” who was born a woman.
But speaking to media in Edinburgh during the hearing, First Minister John Swinney was asked if he personally believed it was “possible for men to get pregnant” and replied: “No, I don’t.”
Asked why his lawyers were arguing, at enormous public cost, that this was possible, he said there were “many complex arguments” being made in court.