A woman who helped create Scotland’s rape crisis movement is urging 16 other centres to follow Glasgow’s lead by restoring single sex services for traumatised female assault victims. Rosemary Whyte, who co-founded the country’s first centre in Glasgow in 1978, hailed the “brave and principled” decision by Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis (GCRC) to return to single sex support.
It severed links with national charity Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) citing conflicts over the inclusion of trans women – biological males self-identifying as female – in support services, and now intends to provide a single-sex service staffed by an “all-female workforce”.
Ms Whyte said the move marked a long-overdue return to the founding principle of rape crisis centres being “run by women for women” and called on Scotland’s other 16 centres currently affiliated to RCS to follow suit.
The decision by its largest affiliate to break away from RCS is a fresh blow for its beleaguered chief executive Sandy Brindley. She has faced growing calls to quit after a review earlier this year found Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) had failed to provide women-only spaces and that its chief executive – trans woman Mridul Wadhwa – had not acted professionally or understood the limits of her authority.
Ms Whyte accused the current RCS leadership of “betraying women” in the row over trans rights.
She said: “As rape is primarily a crime committed against women, men cannot fully comprehend the huge impact their very presence can have upon those who have been attacked. To prioritise the needs of men over traumatised women is a betrayal.”
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