Glasgow centre severs links with Rape Crisis Scotland over trans row

A rape support centre in Scotland’s biggest city has broken its ties with a national charity amid a row over gender.

Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis (GCRC) severed links with umbrella charity Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) because it wants to provide a single-sex service staffed by an ‘all-female workforce’.

It said this was ‘at odds’ with the policy of RCS, whose chief executive Sandy Brindley apologised last month after another centre in Edinburgh – run by a trans woman – failed to provide single-sex spaces for 16 months.

The Glasgow centre supports 30 per cent of all survivors who receive a service from the Scottish rape crisis network.

It will now get its annual funding of £800,000 directly from the Scottish Government, which hands cash to RCS to distribute to a network of branches.

The decision to break away from RCS is a fresh blow for Ms Brindley, who has faced growing calls to quit.

Gender-critical Harry Potter author JK Rowling praised the split, posting on X: ‘Glasgow has a single-sex rape crisis centre again.’

Last night Scottish Tory deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: ‘Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis deserve every credit for taking this principled stance. 

'It is just common sense that rape crisis centres across Scotland should be a safe haven for women – but shamefully that has not been the case.’

A spokesman for the GCRC board said that the decision to cut ties was not ‘taken lightly’ but it had done so to ‘hold fast to our principles and to best serve the women and girls that need our support’.

They added: ‘Single-sex services delivered by an all-female workforce are crucial to help them heal from sexual trauma. This approach remains our priority but is at odds with RCS.’

Although rape crisis centres are autonomous, they sign up to the standards of RCS, which received funding of £6million for 2022-25.

The split comes after a review earlier this year found that Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) had failed to provide women-only spaces and that its chief executive – a trans woman named Mridul Wadhwa – had not acted professionally or understood the limits of her authority.

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The report also said there was ‘evidence that the actions of some ERCC staff had caused damage to some survivors’, and that concerns had been raised that some women were ‘excluding themselves from approaching Rape Crisis Centres including ERCC’ because of their approach to gender identity .

Ms Brindley found out ERCC was not following national standards last October and paused referrals 11 months later when the review said safeguarding was a problem.

Groups including For Women Scotland, which has campaigned against changes to transgender rights, accused the ERCC board of ‘ignoring its own culpability’.

Yesterday RCS said: ‘Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis provides crucial services for survivors, and we wish them and their team well. 

'All Rape Crisis centres must provide women-only spaces within their service but how they define this is currently for individual centres to decide.’

The Scottish Government said it is ‘committed to supporting survivors of rape and sexual assault and we are investing record levels of funding in organisations that provide vital support services’. 

It said it continues to fund Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis Centre.