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Row over gender inclusivity splits Scotland’s Rape Crisis centres

Plus, clubbing for the older generation and one of Glasgow's best bars

Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland. Photo: BBC

Dear readers - how was your weekend? Ours was pretty busy, thanks to the story we published on Saturday. Reporter Catriona Stewart and The Bell investigations team have been deep in the Companies House accounts, examining two titans of the Scottish transport industry: the Easdale Brothers.

Sandy and James Easdale, owners of McGill’s bus company, have been front and centre in the fight against bringing Glasgow’s buses back into public control. Their billionaire status has allowed them a huge amount of influence — so we did a bit of digging into their finances. What we discovered didn’t quite add up.

The findings have made a bit of a splash. On X, a reader called it “important public interest reporting”. Elsewhere, one Redditor praised The Bell for “sticking [our] necks out,”, while another said they’d greeted our launch with scepticism but admitted our recent run of pieces were “excellent”. The Bell’s comment section also produced a useful correction on what an ‘order of magnitude’ actually refers to. But our favourite feedback came from Morag McDonach, who called it “one of the best pieces of financial journalism I've read in a long time”.

This sort of in-depth journalism takes time – and support. If you’re not already on our mailing list, consider signing up today. Over the weekend, our Sheffield sister publication, The Tribune calculated they have 5% of the city’s population subscribing to their free editions, and nearly 0.4% paying for high-quality local news. We hope The Bell will be reporting similar numbers in the months and years to come but that takes getting more people “on the bus”, as Tribune writer Dan Hayes put it. Which is a nice segue back to the Easdales.

Read the story if you haven’t already; otherwise, we’ll let you get on with perusing the Monday briefing. Oh, and check out Mill Media’s latest launch, down in London, which is out of the gates with a huge exclusive on Labour MP (and Parliament's biggest landlord), Jas Athwal. 


The big story: Row over gender inclusivity splits Scotland’s Rape Crisis centres 

Top line: Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis Centre (GCRC) has split from its umbrella charity, Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS), in a factional dispute over gender inclusivity. 

Per GCRC’s telling, they decided to break away in order to “best serve the women and girls that need our support”. In a statement the organisation said they were created “to provide support by and for women”. 

GCRC’s official statement includes five mentions of “women”, yet does not directly address what are presumably its core concerns: the inclusion of transgender staff members and RCS’ trans-inclusive service provision. Instead, they state: “single-sex services delivered by an all-female workforce are crucial to help [women] heal from sexual trauma”. GCRC says it is this stance that puts them at odds with RCS, which sets standards for member centres. 

Conscious uncoupling? BBC News provided wider context on the schism, quoting GCRC co-chair Katie Cosgrove who told Mary McCool that the centre would not be changing the way its service is run. Instead, the decision was taken to "publicly disassociate" itself from RCS.

Cosgrove recognised the need for trans women to use the centre’s service in Glasgow, the largest rape crisis centre in the country, and said 17 trans women had done so in the past year. Indeed, national government funding is conditional on the provision of trans-inclusive services. 

Cosgrove confirmed to the BBC that the Glasgow centre will continue to support trans women who seek support. Unlike Rape Crisis Scotland, however, the Glasgow centre will not employ trans women in its ranks — which may contravene the 2010 Equality Act. 

A shared approach: RCS maintains that all of its centres must provide women-only spaces within their service, but says that how they define this is “for individual centres to decide”, adding that the organisation is working on facilitating a “shared approach” across all centres. The Glasgow split throws a clear spanner in those works. 

‘Serious failings’: The wider context involves an official review commissioned by RCS into the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) earlier this year, which found “serious failings”, including that the Edinburgh charity — which supported service users of all genders — hadn’t put survivors first by providing fewer spaces for women-only. 

  • At the time ERCC said this was because surveys of their service users showed “very little demand” for such spaces; in addition, if clients wanted to access spaces for biological women only, they could request them. RCS found this to be a policy change that had not been reviewed through the proper channels.
  • The review concluded that Mridul Wadhwa, CEO of ERCC “did not understand the limits on her role’s authority” and “failed to set professional standards of behaviour”. Wadhwa, who is trans, resigned after the report was published last month. The review was triggered by the findings of an employment tribunal in May, that former ERCC counsellor, Roz Adams, had been constructively dismissed in an unfair manner. Adams has gone on to work for a new sexual violence support service, funded by JK Rowling.

Yet the review also noted that: “despite [ERCC]'s many serious failings, and damage that it has done to some survivors, it still manages to deliver high quality services to a significant number of people”.

On the ground: In the wake of the ERCC findings, RCS chief executive Sandy Brindley apologised, and confirmed all member centres should provide single-sex spaces. But RCS affirmed that its centres would be trans-inclusive, both in terms of service provision and staffing. 

The latter point is at the heart of the decision for Glasgow’s branch to disassociate from the network. The split raises questions about the degree to which trans victims of sexual assault — a figure that has jumped in recent years, along with reports of anti-trans hate crime — will feel comfortable seeking out support at the Glasgow centre, given the emphasis on prioritising services for women assigned female at birth. The Bell reached out to workers in RCS and GCRC; all those approached were too fearful of backlash to share their thoughts, even anonymously. 

Bottom line: The fundamental law hasn’t changed. The Equality Act allows for the provision of single sex services, rigidly adhering to sex assigned at birth, only if there is a legitimate reason. Guidance on interpreting this legislation was controversially updated in 2022 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to give more examples of excluding trans people from certain services. This includes “women-only support units for women who have experienced domestic or sexual violence”. Notably, the majority of scenarios provided by the EHRC seemed to hone in on trans women. 

But exclusion will be costly, both in terms of impact on potential Rape Crisis service users and staffers, and if cases go to the courts. Earlier this year, academic Rachel Saunders pointed out that “access to single-sex spaces relies on the service provider’s judgement or perception”. She adds that: “If a woman is barred from a women’s single-sex space because the service provider perceives her to be trans, then she can sue the service provider for discrimination.” 


Your Bell briefing

🚨 Sounding the alarm: A Labour councillor has raised concerns about the number of whistleblowing complaints made to Glasgow City Council that are being upheld. Jill Brown, who represents the Partick East/Kelvindale ward, flagged the issue during a finance and audit scrutiny committee meeting, pointing out that 30% of referrals are investigated — suggesting that there is potential wrongdoing to dig into. According to Glasgow Live, which has the story, complaints against council staff and services have gone up by 50% in the past year. Ed note: If you’ve got any whistles you’d like to blow, The Bell is all ears: editor@bell.co.uk

💰 Cash wash: A Glasgow front for an alleged Italian money laundering operation has been liquidated with the loss of more than £7m in unrecovered tax, reports David Leask in The Herald. An international investigation into the affairs of Naples businessman Michele Scognamiglio led prosecutors to Trustcom Ltd, which they believe formed part of an intricate €2bn scheme to wash money for organised crime groups. HMRC had an outstanding claim for the Glasgow Trustcom arm; in the wake of bankruptcy proceedings, initiated by the agency, the total cost of unpaid tax comes in at a whopping £7.6m. The company will now be dissolved.

🏠 Dead end: Campaigners in west Glasgow have been left disappointed after being told a historic derelict building cannot be turned into social housing. According to the Glasgow Times, Whiteinch Burgh Hall, which sits next to Victoria Park, has been abandoned for over two decades. The local housing association had been looking into the possibility of renovating the hall into flats, but the projected costs are simply too high, local Labour councillor Eunis Jassemi has confirmed. Housing is still the “preferred option” for the site’s future though; the search for a developer continues. 


Spot of the week: The Old Toll Bar

There is truly no other drinking establishment in the city quite like the Old Toll Bar. Not content with having the finest pub interior in Glasgow, the Old Toll also boasts a rotating range of taps from the UK’s top breweries, an enviable cocktail list, live music, DJs, and a rather eccentric pub quiz on a Wednesday night. 

Not the worst spot to have a dram. Photo: Robbie Armstrong/The Bell

I popped in for a few halves to do some writing before an event last Thursday. Sat at the elongated bar, facing the elaborate Victorian gantry, I found the place an oasis of quietude. Later, after the event, a group of us were huddled around a corner table sharing stories, drinking drams and soaking up the unimpeachable atmosphere of a bar rammed full of sound companions. A palace of a pub with immaculate vibes at all hours. - Robbie

If you'd like to submit a 'Spot of the week', send in a short blurb and photo to editor@glasgowbell.co.uk.


Media picks  

‘Neither chance nor choice’: Hard to believe that Peter McDougall’s celebrated Play for Today, 'The Elephant’s Graveyard', is approaching its 50 candles. The playwright cut his teeth in the shipyards at the tender age of fourteen, with none other than Billy Connolly, who here plays the unemployed and endearing wastrel Jody, alongside Jon Morrison as Bunny. Set in the hills of McDougall’s home of Greenock, immortal lines flow like the Firth of Clyde: “You get neither chance nor choice. You leave school and go straight to work without even thinking about it. Then you get married without even knowing about it. Then you spend the rest of your days using both as an excuse for never having done anything with your life.” You can devour the entire thing on iPlayer, and watch the writer reminiscing in 'Peter McDougall Remembers... The Elephants' Graveyard'.  

We all love a good fleg: It’s spooky season, which doesn’t preclude Glasgow’s many museums offering the odd jump-scare or frightening sight. Local historian and journalist Norrie Wilson visits Kelvingrove Art Gallery with curator Laura Bauld for Curious City. They discuss, among other hair-raising artworks, the Brownie of Blednoch by Glasgow Boy Edward Atkinson Hornel. “On one level we all love to be frightened, it’s almost a uniting feature, we all love to get a proper fleg — when somebody reveals the end and shouts ‘boo’ and we all go ‘oh god’ then we fall about laughing,” says Norrie, in praise of scary Celtic storytelling tradition. 

The Brownie of Blednoch, Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864–1933). Credit: Glasgow Life Museums/Creative Commons

Forever young: A write up to fill your cup in the Sunday Times, on the joys of day clubbing for the elderly. Weekday Wow Factor was set up by the inimitable Pasna Sallis, an occupational therapist tireless in her quest to find fun and empowering ways to tackle social isolation and cognitive and physical decline among elderly people across Glasgow. The daytime discos do all this and more, yet have had five funding applications rejected this year alone. “That is unprecedented for us,” Pallis says ruefully. For those in a position to do so, you can donate here.


Things to do 

Tuesday

⚓️Take a late lunch and make your way to Riverside Museum at 2pm, where curators Emily Malcolm and Isobel McDonald will be chairing a talk celebrating the contributions of ‘lascars’ — South Asian sailors — to Glasgow’s maritime history. They’ll be joined by contributors to The Lascar Research Project, a two-year community initiative investigating the experiences of such sailors in the city. Ticket details here.

Wednesday

🔔 A big week for sonic meditation in the city, as Monday sees Glasgow Soundbath pitch up south of the river in Queen’s Park Govanhill Church. The north won’t miss out though: Drumchapel Community Centre is playing host to a sound bath experience on Wednesday evening (at slightly cheaper prices too). Relax from 7pm

Thursday

📽 All Hallows Eve hits Glasgow and who are we to defy tradition? Go the whole hog with the Glad Cafe’s screening of silent film classic, ‘Nosferatu’, which will be made markedly noisier thanks to the accompaniment of composer Graeme Stephen’s live score. Tickets from £12. 

Friday 

🏚 Only two days left to scope out ‘If Only We Had The Space’, a free Craft Scotland-backed exhibition at Platform, using the likes of textiles and archive documentary footage to explore the politics of housing and the right to space in Glasgow. Open 10am-5pm.

Saturday 

🎨 A new Hunterian exhibition exploring the works of artistic polymath Derek Jarman opens this weekend. Inspired by Jarman’s diary entries from 1989 (including a stint in Glasgow), the show will feature contemporary contributions alongside Jarman’s oeuvre. Dive in, from 10am–5pm



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