Rape centre breaks away from charity in row over gender

Mary McCool
BBC Scotland News

A rape support centre in Glasgow has broken away from the supervision of the umbrella charity Rape Crisis Scotland in a row over gender.

Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis said its priority was to provide a single-sex service by an "all-female workforce" - and this was "at odds" with the charity's priorities.

RCS chief executive Sandy Brindley recently apologised after another centre in Edinburgh, which was run by a trans woman, failed to provide single-sex spaces for 16 months.

At the time Ms Brindley made clear that all member centres should provide single-sex spaces, but said there was no reason why transgender people could not work in rape support centres.

BBC News understands the Glasgow centre made the decision to end its membership in February and has since had a number of meetings with RCS to discuss concerns.

Its view was it wanted to go beyond providing single-sex spaces and make the whole service women-only.

The Glasgow centre said the decision to end its membership with RCS was not taken lightly.

A spokesperson for its board said: “After careful consideration, we have concluded that the interests of our organisation, and those that rely on our services, will be best served and represented outwith membership of RCS.

“We were created to provide support by and for women. We believe, and women have consistently told us, that 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’."

Under updated guidance, external from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, that was published earlier this year, the definition of women only can include trans women who have a gender recognition certificate (GRC).

However, it is legal to prevent trans women – including those with a GRC - from applying for a women-only role if it is a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.

RCS, which is the national charity that sets service standards for member centres, said it wished the Glasgow team well. It said member centres deliver services in a variety of ways tailored to the needs of communities.

A spokesperson added: “All Rape Crisis Centres must provide women only spaces within their service but how they define this is currently for individual centres to decide.

"Rape Crisis Centres can provide single-sex spaces within Rape Crisis Scotland – and many do."

Survivors 'excluded' in Edinburgh

Earlier this year a review found that Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) had failed to provide women-only spaces and that its CEO - a trans woman named Mridul Wadhwa - had not acted professionally or understood the limits of her authority.

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.

The review recommended RCS facilitate a "shared approach" across its centres - the charity said this work was under way.

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

The review was commissioned by RCS after an employment tribunal found in May of this year that a counsellor - Roz Adams - had been unfairly constructively dismissed.

This was over her belief that people who used the service should be able to know the sex of the staff that would be dealing with their case.

Ms Wadhwa was highlighted in the tribunal outcome as she appeared to believe that Ms Adams was transphobic.

Ms Brindley stressed that Rape Crisis Scotland had no involvement in hiring Ms Wadhwa - who stood down from her role after the review was published.

However she said there had been "no reason" not to agree with the appointment at the time as Ms Wadhwa had significant experience of working in the sector.

The role Ms Wadhwa had is reserved for women only.

Since the controversy emerged, Ms Brindley has faced pressure from some groups to stand down, including from Scottish Conservative MSP Sue Webber.

The BBC understands she still has the full support of the RCS board to remain in post.

Ms Brindley told BBC News: "I don’t expect to be in post beyond the next 12 months but I definitely don’t intend to resign just now - we've got so many important things to do."

The chief executive previously described how the controversy had led to rape survivors who supported RCS experiencing "horrendous" abuse online, including being told that they "must be lying" about being raped.

"It is absolutely astonishing to me that this is the position we're in where rape survivors can be treated in this way in the name of women's rights supposedly," she said.

RCS runs 17 support centres across Scotland and offers support to men, women, transgender and non-binary people.

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