Which side of history will our politicians be on?
Pride started not as the palatable rainbow march, parades and parties that we have become accustomed to, but as the result of a riot to fight for LGBTQIA+ rights.
The police raid and subsequent riot on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, was commemorated a year later and has since become the catalyst for the annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ rights that we call Pride. In those 56 years, the overall picture for LGBTQIA+ rights and liberation has promised progress overall.
READ MORE: Tartan Army fan who trekked to Euros embarking on new challenge with 'special' goal
Scotland just celebrated 10 years of equal marriage, and the importance of protecting LGBTQIA+ rights is internationally recognised. This should be a reason to celebrate how far we have come in just over half a century.
What has also been constant, though, is the use of the community as political pawns. This is becoming increasingly obvious to those who feel they are being pulled along for the ride, their existence scrutinised and challenged time and time again.
This year's nationwide ban on political parties from marching in Pride celebrations only proves that there is a lot of love lost.
We need to rebuild LGBTQIA+ people's trust not only in democracy, but in politicians elected to represent them.
During Pride Month this year, it would do well for all politicians to go back to basics and understand what allyship really means, and decide which side of history they wish to be on.
First, allyship is a continued commitment. The SNP Government let down LGBTQIA+ people late last year with the delay of a long-promised conversion practices ban, keeping them suspended only to let them down again in May when they dropped the ban completely.
These horrific practices are permitted in the UK, and are a hidden shame we must stamp out if we are to continue to be viewed as a progressive nation.
(Image: Ed Nix)
The SNP's allyship seems to stop at doing the work. They are more than happy to outsource a ban on conversion practices to the UK Government despite having the powers to implement it here in Scotland right now.
Choosing to rely on a Labour Government which is yet to prove itself as champions of any marginalised community, especially the ones that won them their election, is looking like a long shot for progress.
Slamming on the brakes is simply not the right action to take when we are seeing a global rollback of progressive values and human rights.
Just weeks ago, the UK dropped to its lowest-ever position on the European rankings for LGBTQIA+ rights.
We cannot sit on our hands and wait for the rest of Europe to fall behind us to improve our score.
We must take action to do better now. Allyship is best when it is with rather than for people. That means showing up and listening, not just paying lip service.
We need more LGBTQIA+ representation in politics, and that means parties must take deeply seriously the bigoted, homophobic nature of much of the bile that is spewed upon candidates, particularly on social media.
Setbacks such as Thatcher's Section 28 should be viewed as a cautionary tale of how bad things can get, not as the blueprint for how Scotland and the UK should move forward.
Human rights and equalities must extend beyond party politics and policies. These are real people we interact with each day, who bear the emotional and mental toll of the debates and discussions held.
These are people who vote for us in good faith, in the hopes that we will protect their rights and improve their lives.
And recently, it is clear that they have felt abandoned and excluded from the conversation.
We need to take seriously the calls which LGBTQIA+ people make, and not just those made in formal political settings. The voices chanting at the rally are as valid as the ones sending policy briefs to elected representatives.
The Scottish Greens have been long-time proponents of a more participative democracy – that means inviting members of the public into policy development at early stages, facilitating learning and healthy dialogue, and then honouring the proposals that they craft.
Initiatives like these can increase public trust in politicians, showing communities how valued and critical they are in decision-making.
These sessions have been used across Europe including in France to discuss assisted dying and in Ireland to shape the lifting of their notorious abortion ban.
Political decisions should include those who will be directly affected by the choices made in our chambers and committees.
We regularly see the power that lobbying groups hold to effect change when legislation is being debated.
There needs to be a tone shift by politicians to invite even more groups of people into their decision-making fold, specifically including marginalised groups like the LGBTQIA+ community.
By this time next year, I hope that I will be able to write a more positive column for Pride Month, and I hope that I can proudly say we live in a more compassionate and welcoming Scotland that tops the list as far as allyship goes.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
44 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Why loss of Kate Forbes will be bigger blow than SNP may realise
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... As we reveal today, the Scottish Government spent £1.3 million of taxpayers' money on a report into the idea of a minimum income guarantee, despite not having the authority to introduce it and seemingly knowing it was 'doomed to fail'. The question is, therefore, why would they do this. The answer, as ever with the SNP, is simple: the pursuit of independence, the guiding light behind too many decisions in government. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Wanting to appear progressive and to the left of Labour, they clearly felt the need to seem sympathetic to the idea of a minimum income. Commissioning a report was a way to signal this. Of course, the SNP may argue that it is a policy which could be considered in an independent Scotland and that the money was as well spent as that used to produce the Scottish Government's near-forgotten 'independence papers'. On the latter point, we would not disagree. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes has announced she is standing down at the next Holyrood election (Picture: Paul Campbell) | Getty Images Dreamers vs pragmatists However, any such justification would only highlight what should be considered as a fundamental dividing line within the party – between the dreamers who think selling a vision of a promised land is the best way to achieve independence and the pragmatists who recognise it is important to run Scotland well in the here and now. The decision of Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, a pragmatist with at least a degree of understanding of the needs of business, to stand down at the next election will therefore be a blow not just to the SNP government but to Scotland as a whole. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The simple truth is that there is no prospect of another referendum, let alone independence itself, while support remains at its current level. Selling dubious visions of the future is an easy, glib and ultimately empty way of trying to increase it.
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Kate Forbes exit: Is it possible to be a good parent and an MSP?
"I am grateful to them for accommodating the heavy demands of being a political figure. Looking ahead to the future, I do not want to miss any more of the precious early years of family life – which can never be rewound." It's a statement that will resonate with all working parents across Scotland (most often mothers as they usually have the responsibility as chief carer), many of whom will have regretted missing a school sports day or a school show or felt the panic of a meeting over-running as the clock approached nursery closing hours. But it will particularly echo with a considerable number of MSPs. Kate Forbes pictured with her daughter Naomi aged six months, in March 2023 during the SNP leadership race (Image: Colin Mearns) When the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999 there was much emphasis that Holyrood would do things differently to Westminster including that it would be more family friendly. For instance, the late night sittings, common place in the House of Commons, would be avoided in preference for more usual office hours and parliamentary sittings would align with school term times and there would be an on site creche. But while it has a creche its opening hours have been limited. Calls by some MSPs - including Ms Forbes - for longer opening hours of the Holyrood creche have not been met. It is currently open just three days a week and can only be used three hours a day - which is clearly insufficient for the child care needs of an MSP. Prior to the pandemic, the creche was open Monday to Friday. Holyrood has insisted since 2021 that it has adopted new family friendly policies, including the permanent introduction of hybrid working, allowing those who can't attend Holyrood in person to take part in, and vote, on parliamentary business. Proxy voting has also been introduced, allowing those who may be on parental leave or certain other long term absences, to have their vote counted in parliamentary business. And in 2023 the Presiding Officer commissioned a Gender Sensitive Audit of the Scottish Parliament looking at barriers to equal representation and participation at Holyrood, with the aim that being an elected representative is a realistic ambition, whatever a person's circumstances. But despite some of the moves by Holyrood - including mostly keeping to the standard working hours for its debates and committee hearings and sitting during school term times - MSPs and ministers have duties that take them well beyond the daily nine to five. For many MSPs the job is a 24 hour round the clock role - so perhaps political parties should do more to help promote a better work life balance among their parliamentarians. READ MORE: Ahead of the last [[Holyrood]] election in 2021, [[Kate Forbes]]' SNP colleague and fellow Highland MSP Gail Ross spoke about how hard it was to be an MSP, especially for a large constituency a long way from Edinburgh with the huge amount of weekly travel that involves, and being a mother who was there for her children. If there are difficulties for a backbencher, as Ms Ross was, in finding a decent balance between working and caring duties, these challenges intensify for someone in government, who in addition to all their parliamentary and constituency responsibilities as an MSP, also has the huge demands of being a minister or a cabinet minister. And of course, the pressure rises still further for anyone in the role of Deputy First Minister or First Minister. I was struck by a comment by John Swinney last week when he told Donald Trump that he likes to caddy for his son Matthew, who is 14. My immediate thought was 'that's a really nice thing to do but how does the First Minister find time to caddy for his son?' Clearly, the FM must do a lot of diary juggling to find time to spend this quality time with his teenager. Few of Scotland's First Ministers have been parents of young children while in office. Donald Dewar's two children were adults when he was First Minister, as were the children of his Labour successors Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell. When it came to the [[SNP]], neither Alex Salmond nor Nicola Sturgeon had children. The latter has spoken of her deep sadness of this situation and also revealed she suffered a miscarriage in January 2011 while Deputy First Minister. As an indication of the pressures senior politicians are under Ms Sturgeon told some years later that instead of dealing with her grief following the miscarriage at home, she attended the 40th anniversary of the Ibrox disaster, in which 66 Rangers football supporters were crushed to death. Humza Yousaf was the first First Minister to have young children while in office at Bute House. Mr Yousaf used his time at the top of government to highlight that he also had an important role as a father. The then First Minister and his wife Nadia El Nakla had one daughter Amal, three, together when he first became FM while Mr Yousaf was also stepfather to 14-year-old daughter Maya. He liked to describe himself as a "hands-on dad", was pictured reading bed time stories to Amal in Bute House and spoke of the need to set boundaries between his family and working life. Things didn't always go to plan though and Mr Yousaf has previously recounted one episode, just after he was elected SNP leader, when Amal burst into a Bute House meeting when he was deciding who would be in his Cabinet. 'I'm deciding who's going to be in my Cabinet, making last-minute tweaks to the ministerial team. It was about 9.30pm and in comes Amal, bare feet, unicorn pyjamas, saying 'Dad I have to go to bed, Mummy says'," he said. 'And both Colin [McAllister] and Shona [Robison] were like 'that has never happened at Bute House before. I say to my kids and wife Nadia, as much as this is a workspace, it's also our residence and family home too.' Given the challenges, it was perhaps not surprising that Mr Yousaf paid tribute to his wife, children and family for their support in his tearful resignation statement in April 2024. "Politics can be a brutal business. It takes its toll on your physical and mental health; your family suffer alongside you. "I am in debt to my wonderful wife, my beautiful children and wider family for putting up with me over the years, I am afraid you will be seeing a lot more of me now. You are truly everything to me," he said. Shortly after returning to the backbenches the former First Minister was keen to highlight one of the silver linings of his loss of office was being able to attend events with Amal that he wouldn't have had the time to while in Bute House. Kate Forbes's resignation announcement has been met with considerable dismay across Holyrood today. No doubt her young daughter and her wider family will be delighted to see more of her. But it is a sad state of affairs that we expect so much of a sacrifice from our politicians that some feel they cannot be both successful MSPs and senior ministers and also contented and nurturing parents.
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
From rising star to Deputy FM – Kate Forbes' career in brief
The Deputy First Minister was selected to contest the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency in 2026, but now the party will have to rerun the contest and find a new candidate. Party members and politicians expressed shock at the news, while opposition politicians used it as an excuse to take shots at the SNP. Forbes was first elected to Holyrood in 2016, aged 26, having previously worked as an accountant in the banking industry and for former MSP Dave Thompson in the same constituency. READ MORE: Kate Forbes to quit Holyrood in 2026 – read her statements in full The MSP studied history at Cambridge before completing an MSc in diaspora and migration history at the University of Edinburgh. Born in Dingwall, she spent part of her childhood in India and Glasgow, and attended a Gaelic school. She quickly rose through the ranks, first as public finance minister in 2018 before becoming Scotland's first female finance secretary under Nicola Sturgeon in 2020. Forbes was praised for delivering the budget speech at short notice, taking on the role the night before after her predecessor Derek Mackay was forced to stand down when it emerged he had sent inappropriate messages to a teenager. During her time as a backbencher, she delivered the first speech in the Holyrood chamber entirely in Gaelic, later becoming the first Cabinet Secretary for the language, alongside responsibilities for the economy, when she was appointed DFM. (Image: PA) Forbes narrowly lost out on the SNP leadership contest after Sturgeon resigned to Humza Yousaf, who is also set to leave [[Holyrood]] when the parliamentary term ends. She fought the contest while on maternity leave, coming second in the first round of voting with 40.7%, to Yousaf's 48.2%. The second round saw Yousaf win with 52.1%, compared to Forbes' 47.9%. During the campaign, Forbes came under fire for her views on abortion, gay marriage and trans rights. A member of the Free Church of Scotland, she said that having children outside of marriage was 'wrong' and that she would not have supported equal marriage as a 'matter of conscience'. Forbes was on maternity leave while the Scottish Parliament voted on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which would have allowed transgender people to self-identify. In 2019, she joined 15 other SNP politicians in writing an open letter to Sturgeon calling for a delay to the reforms, and would later reiterate her concerns during the leadership campaign. READ MORE: Keith Brown: UK can't ignore independence demand with SNP majority On independence, she said during the contest that the party should use the Westminster election to win a mandate and demand powers to allow a referendum to go ahead. After the contest, she told the New Statesman she would have been 'haunted' if she had not stayed true to her religious beliefs during the campaign. Leaving the cabinet in 2023 after Yousaf offered her the rural affairs brief, seen as a major demotion by some, Forbes spent a year on the backbenches. When Yousaf resigned as first minister, following the collapse of the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Greens, Forbes took on the deputy first minister role when John Swinney took over leadership of the party and government. She was given responsibilities for the economy and [[Gaelic]], and last week welcomed the approval of a massive offshore wind farm off the coast of East Lothian. Forbes had been considered a potential successor to Swinney, prior to her shock announcement and will continue in her MSP role for the next nine months. She added on social media that despite standing down, she is looking forward to campaigning at the election to 'lead Scotland to independence'.
