Expert in what?

Expert says trans children’s rights are not being respected

Expert in what field exactly?

The reporter, one James MacEnany, Education Specialist, fails to say.

Next we get photo caption:

Expert academic says the rights of trans children in Scotland are not being respected 

Then we get the first two paragraphs:

“It is a difficult time to be doing any kind of research on trans or queer or even feminist topics, so I’m finding that I need to be quite cautious about media coverage.”

This is the view of Dr Ruth Pearce, an expert and researcher at the University of Glasgow.

Expert expert expert, we get it, but expert in what field?

We are not told. We do get another expert though.

Dr Pearce has recently collaborated with an expert from south of the border to examine whether or not the rights of trans children are being respected in Scotland, with a particular focus on the way in which the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) – which was supposed to protect and enhance the rights of all children – is operating in practice after its incorporation into Scots law.

Finally we get the answer.

“I was working with Dr. Cal Horton. They’re at Oxford Brookes University and an expert on trans childhood in the UK, looking at areas like education and healthcare as their main focus. We were looking specifically at Scotland because it is the only part of the UK that’s has integrated UNCRC into domestic law.

“I’m a sociologist rather than a legal scholar, as is Cal, so in a sense we’re kind of looking at how the law in terms of the experiential impact of it.”

That should have been at the top. “Expert” means nothing. People can idennify as experts, and they do.