In Wales, a draft of the government’s Gender Quotas Bill was leaked, and it mentions an update of the definition of “woman” to include transgender women.
The bill is part of the plan for a gender-equal Senedd.
Senedd Wales (or just Senedd) is the Welsh Parliament, and there are plans to expand the number of parliamentarians with 36 more politicians. Under a new system to take effect at the 2026 Senedd election, voters will pick parties rather than individual candidates with politicians elected from lists, but the Welsh government hopes for parties to come up with equal lists of men and women for election.
Transgender women – if the bill is passed – could be counted as women.
In the draft bill, the definition of transgender reads: “A person who is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning [their] sex to female by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.”
The draft bill similarly suggests that no constituency returning officer would be allowed to challenge or make an inquiry in relation to a candidate’s identity.
After the leak, it was reported that the bill has already been changed, but no information has been provided on what was altered.
