Scotland has a shiny new hate crime bill that doesn’t include women.

Scotland’s controversial hate crime bill is set to pass later on Thursday amid anger about its current exclusion of women and assurances that the legislation will not criminalise those whose views are considered by some to be transphobic.

It did pass.

The final vote was delayed from Wednesday, after a marathon five-hour debate over a lengthy series of amendments resulted in one of Holyrood’s latest sittings and concluded the rocky passage of the bill. It is intended to consolidate existing hate crime laws but also creates a new offence of “stirring up hatred” on the grounds of religion, sexual orientation, age, disability or transgender identity.

But not sex. I guess there is no stirring up of hatred against women.

On Wednesday, an amendment to add sex to this list of protected characteristics at this stage was voted down, after MSPs cross-party raised concerns about why women were excluded. … Joan McAlpine, who broke with the SNP whip on a number of amendments, told colleagues: “The thing that finally turned me to my current position was the government’s decision to expand the definition of transgender identity to include cross-dressers who are not trans identified…It will seem bizarre to many people that men who enjoy cross-dressing are protected from hate crime, but women are not.”

Bizarre, yes, but it’s more that it’s evil.