BREAST cancer patients hit out after SNP ministers used an expert who made “offensive” remarks about women with mastectomies to bolster their case for gender self-ID.

The SNP Government faced a backlash today in the latest twist in a row over plans to let people change sex on their birth certificate without medical diagnosis.

5 Dr Peter Dunne made 'offensive' remarks about women with mastectomies Credit: info@marknixon.com

Women campaigners - including some prominent Nats figures - claim the overhaul could put females at risk in single-sex places like changing rooms, toilets, hospital wards or prisons.

But Equalities Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville dismissed the safety warnings by citing research from expert Dr Peter Dunne as proof there’s no evidence trans women - or men posing as trans women - could be “predatory”.

However, the Bristol University academic’s paper - cited in a Scottish Government consultation - sparked outrage as it compares bodies of trans women to other “non-normative” people including women after breast removal surgery.

The paper argues it “would be unthinkable” that “discomfort” of onlookers could stop a woman from using female showers “after she had a double mastectomy”, and adds: “Why are trans persons treated differently?”

The use of the academic prompted SNP MSP Joan McAlpine - a critic of the self-ID plan - to raise her concerns at Holyrood today with Ms Somerville.

The Scottish Government also sparked a backlash on Twitter, as well as anger on MumsNet from women including breast cancer patients.

5 Equalities Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville cited research from expert Dr Peter Dunne Credit: Alamy Live News

One said: “I am currently having treatment for breast cancer and am boiling with rage about this. It’s incomprehensible how they can equate a woman who has had a mastectomy with a male bodied person.”

Another said: “So angry. I’m a breast cancer survivor who has had a double mastectomy. Due to the lovely brca2 gene, I’m now also lacking ovaries. I am a woman. Do not dare equate my lived experience as a woman with someone whose lived experience is as a man.”

Susan Sinclair, an independent researcher and blogger on women’s rights, told The Scottish Sun SNP ministers were relying on “an academic paper by a trans activist” and said Dr Dunne’s mastectomy claims were “extremely offensive”.

5 The move has sparked fury on MumsNet Credit: MumsNet

She added: “It’s particularly cruel to use a women’s scarred body to argue for the inclusion of male people in female-only spaces.

“The reason why we have ‘female only’ spaces isn’t simply that women might find the appearance of a male body offensive, it’s because of the high instances of sexual violence perpetrated against them by men.”

And the MurrayBlackburnMackenzie policy analysis group said: “The Scottish Government has chosen an academic paper that is arguing for the dismantling of sex-single protections as one of only two sources to support its claim that concerns about the impact of reform on single-sex sex services and spaces are misplaced.

5 SNP MSP Joan McAlpine - a critic of the self-ID plan - raised her concerns at Holyrood today Credit: Alamy Live News

"This raises serious questions about the evidence base for reform and the quality of scrutiny undertaken within government.”

The 2017 paper by Dr Dunne - a law lecturer and human rights expert - argues men who self-ID as trans women should be allowed into female-only facilities.

Under a section headed “Abnormal bodies”, the academic insists arguments for banning “non-normative bodies” from “single-gender spaces” are undermined because “cisgender” or “intersex” people are “not held to that same ‘normal’ body standard”.

A “cisgender” person is someone who still regards themselves as the sex they were born, while an “intersex” person is someone born with characteristics of both sexes.

Do not dare equate my lived experience as a woman with someone whose lived experience is as a man.” Breast cancer survivor

Dr Dunne’s paper adds: “It would be unthinkable that general discomfort could prevent a cisgender woman from using segregated showering facilities after she had a double mastectomy.

“In reality, UK law tolerates a considerable amount of bodily diversity when cisgender and intersex persons use single-gender spaces.

“Why are trans persons treated differently?” And it adds: “If cisgender and intersex persons can use women-only and men-only services, even when they have non-normative bodies, concerns about bodily diversity do not justify the current legal position.”

5 Breast cancer survivors slammed the move online Credit: MumsNet

Researcher Ms Sinclair said Dr Dunne’s report was seeking to hammer home its core point by likening “seeing a naked male body within a ‘women only’ showering facility to seeing a woman who has had a double mastectomy”.

She said: “This is extremely offensive to the thousands of women across the country who have suffered from breast cancer to have their bodies used as a comparison in this way.

“It also spectacularly misses the point of why women are worried about losing their ‘female only’ spaces.

“In its attempts to reassure women of this crucially important and sensitive aspect of the changes to the law, the Government have instead revealed that by using this report as their best evidence, they have absolutely no understanding of what the general public have been worried about all this time.”

At Hoyrood today, Ms Somerville tried to distance herself from Dr Dunne’s mastectomy comments after they were raised by Ms McAlpine, who said his report suggests “a women catching sight of a male body in a changing room should be no more distressing than seeing another woman with a mastectomy”.

She said: “Does the government regret citing this research and do they agree that the comparison is insulting to breast cancer survivors?”

Two sisters with high risk of breast cancer decide to have double mastectomies

Ms Somerville said the Government’s document was a “draft” assessment on how the self-ID plans could affect other groups and said she’d “encourage members and indeed members of the public to feed in their responses”.

She added: “The research that is reference to was there because of a reference within that work to show that there is no increased risk of women being attacked within single sex spaces by trans women, and that’s why that report was in there.

“Obviously the other parts of the research - specifically the one section that the member refers to - is not something that the government would support.”

The key controversy over SNP minister’s planned legal overhaul is that the law would be altered so anyone could self-ID as male or female, without being diagnosed with “gender dysphoria”.

Critics say this is open to abuse and gives males the legal right to access female-only spaces.

The Scottish Government consultation, launched last month, said it had “not identified any evidence supporting the claim that trans women are more likely than non-trans women to sexually assault other women in women-only spaces”. It listed Dr Dunne’s as one of two “sources” for its conclusions.

The government document said: “Much of the literature reiterates this lack of any evidence, legal, medical or otherwise, to support this characterisation of trans women as ‘deviant’ or predatory.

“In addition to concerns about the inclusion of trans women in women-only spaces and services, some respondents expressed concerns that predatory men posing as trans women would seek to gain access to women only spaces and services for malicious reasons.

“The Scottish Government has not identified any evidence supporting a link between women-only spaces being inclusive of transgender women, and nontrans men falsely claiming a trans identity to access these spaces and commit sexual violence.”

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Asked about the criticism of his mastectomy comment and claim he was a trans activist, Dr Dunne said in a statement: "My paper explores access for transgender individuals to single-gender services and communal accommodations in the United Kingdom. The paper was peer-reviewed ahead of publication and is available for anyone to reference.

"I have always advocated that the law should not define people solely by reference to their bodies. As my article clearly states, I believe that it would be ‘unthinkable’ that any person should be treated differently as a woman because she has undergone a double mastectomy.

"I am, first and foremost, an objective researcher of the law. Having worked with LGBTI communities for over a decade, I believe that there are strong, compelling justifications for respecting the equality, dignity and human rights of transgender individuals."

Mum describes moment docs admit they MISDIAGNOSED her with breast cancer after having double mastectomy and chemo

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