Wednesday 2 November 2022 09:13 AM JK Rowling hails Ash Regan as a 'heroine' after she resigned in protest over ... trends now
A former SNP minister who dramatically quit Nicola Sturgeon's party in protest at her radical gender recognition reforms has been hailed a 'heroine' by JK Rowling.
Ash Regan, 48, was branded a 'principled politician' by the Harry Potter author after stepping down as community safety minister last week as the SNP Government launched its plans to make it easier for trans people to legally change gender.
The First Minister's frosty letter scolded Miss Regan for abandoning her portfolio and claimed that she had not previously raised objections to the controversial Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
In a terse response to her resignation, Ms Sturgeon said 'at no stage have you approached me... to raise your concerns' about the Bill.
But the rebel minister insisted Ms Sturgeon was 'well aware' of her concerns'. Ms Regan was among nine rebel SNP members who refused to back their party - marking the largest party rebellion since they assumed power in Holyrood.
Addressing the media outside Holyrood, she explained her 'conscience would not allow me to vote for a Bill where I could not be 100 per cent certain that women and girls would not be in danger'.
Ms Regan's stand was praised by Miss Rowling, who has previously tweeted a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt calling the First Minister a ‘destroyer of women’s rights’.
The author tweeted: ‘This is what a principled politician looks like. [She] will rightly be seen as a heroine when future generations of Scottish women look back at the profoundly misogynistic legislation currently being pushed through by the Sturgeon government.’
The Harry Potter author has previously warned the Bill could result in attacks on 'the most vulnerable women' by men who are able to exploit changes in spaces such as prisons and domestic violence refuges.
The rebel minister 48, was branded a 'heroine' by Harry Potter author JK Rowling after stepping down as community safety minister after the SNP Government launched its plans to make it easier for trans people to legally change gender
Ms Regan's stand was praised by Miss Rowling (pictured), who has previously tweeted a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt calling the First Minister a ‘destroyer of women’s rights’
The First Minister's frosty letter scolded Miss Regan for abandoning her portfolio and claimed that she had not previously raised objections to the controversial Gender Recognition Reform Bill
The controversial legislation passed its first hurdle at Holyrood last week, with 88 voting for, 33 against and four abstaining.
It has since emerged that Ms Regan signed an open letter in 2019 that expressed doubts about 'changing the definitions of male and female'.
The rebel minister fired a parting shot at the First Minister in her resignation letter as she accused Ms Sturgeon of misleading the public about her decision to step down.
She said: 'The First Minister was well aware of the concerns that I held on this issue.
'I think the vote, for the SNP, should have been a free vote. I think healthy debate is important.
'I think that robust challenge is, after all, how we create good law. And I think that actually that’s a strength and it’s not a weakness.
'We know that in many areas of life women are discriminated against and so rightly they have legal protections in place, and I was not convinced those legal protections could continue to be upheld.'
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The letter makes clear that at no point did Ms Regan make use of the well-established practice by which any minister can
