WOMEN of all ages and backgrounds gathered recently to protest at the prosecution of Marion Millar.

Her alleged crime? Tweeting, among other things, a picture of suffragette ribbons tied outside a fence at the BBC studios in Dumbarton.

For those who may not be aware, women are protesting the removal of their rights to single sex spaces and services.

The Scottish Government wants to legislate to allow any male to be treated in law as a female, without any checks or balances.

The proposed reform of the Gender Recognition Act has left many women anxious due to the removal of the need for any medical intervention and gatekeeping or social transition.

Women are more than aware of the capacity for male violence. We know not all males are perpetrators of domestic violence, nor are all men sexual predators.

However we do know how those men who do perpetrate violent crimes against women and girls operate.

Allowing any man into women’s toilets, changing spaces, refuges, prisons, hospital wards, as well as accessing female only opportunities like women’s sport, removes our rights to privacy, dignity, safety and fairness.

Like Marion Miller, there are many of us opposing this.

In Scotland the vast majority of female prisoners are incarcerated for non-violent crimes.

They are often vulnerable as a result of domestic violence and/or childhood sexual abuse.

Yet the government is already allowing self-identifying males to transfer to women’s prisons.

The former governor of Cornton Vale prison, Rhona Hotchkiss, has spoken of her alarm at this policy change, and has testified on numerous occasions about the impact on vulnerable women.

In England and Wales similar policies have been implemented, but certain aspects are being reviewed.

Karen White, a dangerous convicted sexual predator found guilty of rape, announced following their conviction that they self identified as a woman, and was placed in a female prison.

Karen went on to sexually assault vulnerable female prisoners.

Despite numerous requests, For Women Scotland, a voluntary organisation representing ordinary women across Scotland, is being denied the access to ministers that organisations in favour of GRA reform are granted.

The government promised to release the outcome of a second consultation on GRA reform.

But they have recently reneged on that promise, and won’t be revealing the conclusions.

Despite their assertions, the government’s actions, in the face of the ever increasing risk of male violence towards women and girls, do not match their words.