“…a statement from Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, which will be delivered on his behalf by Shirley-Ann Sommerville MSP, SNP Member..”
Will this statement explain why the SNP accepts money from a known major homophobe, why they let (and helped) a catholic adoption agency in Glasgow refuse to serve gay people, why there are known homophobes in ministerial positions in the Scottish Government, why they think it’s ok for fire-fighters to refuse to attend Gay Pride marches to hand out fire safety leaflets, why they happily had openly homophobic candidates at the recent General Election, amongst other things?
I hope to be there. I’m not too keen on some of these politician’s speeches as shows of support though, because I always think they are just doing so to garner favour with the LGBT public instead of doing their job by passing LGBT positive legislation.
Bam, have you written to the First Minister (or perhaps even better the Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon) to say what you think about the Scottish Govt’s record? I would recommend it – you may get a reply that does not satisfy, but it’s important they know about people’s views.
George, legislation is one area where the Scottish Govt has done quite well since they were elected in 2007 – supporting new hate crime legislation which is the first in Europe to specifically cover transphobic hate crime as well as homo/biphobic, and has the best definition of transgender anywhere in legislation in Europe, and also finally abolishing the offences of gross indecency and sodomy, and extending rape so that it covers anal rape and also protects all trans people as well as non-trans people. Scotland was well behind on these particular issues in 2007 and now is no longer behind.
Of course it is any government’s future commitments that matter now, not their past legislation.
Tim #3 – Yes, I’ve let the SNP know my views on these issues through one of my Regional SNP MSP’s, and by contacting Out for Independence, the SNP’s LGBT group. I was more or less told that I was overstating the claims and that even if they were true (as they weren’t even aware of some of them) it didn’t mean the SNP was homophobic, which they assured me it wasn’t.
With particular regard to the Catholic adoption agency, I was told by this Regional MSP that the Scottish Government are happy with the situation, which isn’t surprising since the Scottish Government helped the agency to get around these laws in the first place. I’ve since been trying to get help from other MSP’s and MEP’s (without much success) with this matter and I’ve found out recently that the Equality & Human Rights Commission believe that this situation is illegal, but nodody actually seems to want to do anything about it, despite them constantly assuring me that they think it’s wrong.
I understand that there will be a “Faith Communities Support Same Sex Marriage” baaner. If I can locate it, I will be marching behind that. I hope others will join us in the support given toSame Sex Marriage by the Faith Communities in Scotland! There many of us!
See you there!
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“…a statement from Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, which will be delivered on his behalf by Shirley-Ann Sommerville MSP, SNP Member..”
Will this statement explain why the SNP accepts money from a known major homophobe, why they let (and helped) a catholic adoption agency in Glasgow refuse to serve gay people, why there are known homophobes in ministerial positions in the Scottish Government, why they think it’s ok for fire-fighters to refuse to attend Gay Pride marches to hand out fire safety leaflets, why they happily had openly homophobic candidates at the recent General Election, amongst other things?
I hope to be there. I’m not too keen on some of these politician’s speeches as shows of support though, because I always think they are just doing so to garner favour with the LGBT public instead of doing their job by passing LGBT positive legislation.
Bam, have you written to the First Minister (or perhaps even better the Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon) to say what you think about the Scottish Govt’s record? I would recommend it – you may get a reply that does not satisfy, but it’s important they know about people’s views.
George, legislation is one area where the Scottish Govt has done quite well since they were elected in 2007 – supporting new hate crime legislation which is the first in Europe to specifically cover transphobic hate crime as well as homo/biphobic, and has the best definition of transgender anywhere in legislation in Europe, and also finally abolishing the offences of gross indecency and sodomy, and extending rape so that it covers anal rape and also protects all trans people as well as non-trans people. Scotland was well behind on these particular issues in 2007 and now is no longer behind.
Of course it is any government’s future commitments that matter now, not their past legislation.
Tim #3 – Yes, I’ve let the SNP know my views on these issues through one of my Regional SNP MSP’s, and by contacting Out for Independence, the SNP’s LGBT group. I was more or less told that I was overstating the claims and that even if they were true (as they weren’t even aware of some of them) it didn’t mean the SNP was homophobic, which they assured me it wasn’t.
With particular regard to the Catholic adoption agency, I was told by this Regional MSP that the Scottish Government are happy with the situation, which isn’t surprising since the Scottish Government helped the agency to get around these laws in the first place. I’ve since been trying to get help from other MSP’s and MEP’s (without much success) with this matter and I’ve found out recently that the Equality & Human Rights Commission believe that this situation is illegal, but nodody actually seems to want to do anything about it, despite them constantly assuring me that they think it’s wrong.
I understand that there will be a “Faith Communities Support Same Sex Marriage” baaner. If I can locate it, I will be marching behind that. I hope others will join us in the support given toSame Sex Marriage by the Faith Communities in Scotland! There many of us!
See you there!