The newly elected co-leaders of the Scottish Greens have said anyone who does not accept that trans women are women has no place in their party.
Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, who were chosen last month to succeed Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, used an interview on the BBC’s Scotcast to make clear that backing trans rights is a “red line” for the Greens.
Their stance comes after former Green MSP Andy Wightman accused the party of becoming “censorious” on gender issues when he resigned in 2020.
Asked if someone who believes in the need for urgent and radical action on the environment, but who was also a “turbo unionist” could vote for the pro-independence party, Ms Mackay replied: “There will already be people out there who do vote for us, but don’t necessarily support independence”.
“People are more nuanced than you think,” she added.
She was then asked if someone who was committed to the climate cause but did not believe trans women were women would have a home in the Greens, Ms Mackay said: “I think that is probably a red line for us.
“Trans people have been massively targeted over the past few years, entirely wrongly, by a great number of people, and they just want to go and live their lives.
“It is a matter of basic human decency in some cases as well, and having that and having empathy for people who have been marginalised and targeted, who just want to exist in public spaces. That is becoming more and more difficult for a great many of them.”
Asked about the Supreme Court ruling that the terms sex and women in the Equality Act mean biology rather than gender identity, Mr Greer said the law could be changed.
“The Supreme Court’s job is not to make up law. The Supreme Court’s job is to interpret the law as it has been written.
“We would argue that the Equality Act clearly does need to be changed to clarify the rights of trans people, and in this case in particular, trans women.
“But there is an idea that this is somehow something new, a distraction that is taking Greens away from our core cause.
“The cause of LGBT equality has been in our DNA, in the DNA of every Green Party since our movement began in the 70s.
This is the kind of statement that would win “Your Party” votes if they were principled enough to say it
Shame the SNP can’t say the same.
Sorry Corbyn, this is the way. You lost a voter to the greens forever today
on yersel’ greens.
This just came across my feed (not a Scot but Irish hi neighbours) and fair play.
Transphobes need to stop making their inability to count higher than 2 everyone else’s problem.
Last I saw the polls on trans issues, it didn’t show that the majority of people accept trans women as women. At best they ‘go along with it’.
Are these guys allergic to votes?
Like the court?
playing into the hands of Reform.
I really hate grammar sometimes and the technicalities of it. Doesn’t it follow that if trans-women are women then Women are Women and then that just a void statement isn’t it?
I suspect what’s actually going on is much deeper society problem caused by the internet that’s left people feeling isolated and dissociated within themselves and within the community. This is just the tip of the iceberg we can all play along and pretend it’s not happening but things are only going to get worse and I dread to think what the breaking point will look like.
Quite right.
great I won’t be voting for you byeee
Oh crap, they’re gonna make me become a member again aren’t they
I wonder if that backfires on them when they have less than 10% of the overall vote in Scotland. Maybe it means that 90% of people don’t believe TWAW, or TMAM for that matter.
Keep men out of women’s spaces and keep women out of mens spaces.
15 comments
The newly elected co-leaders of the Scottish Greens have said anyone who does not accept that trans women are women has no place in their party.
Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay, who were chosen last month to succeed Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, used an interview on the BBC’s Scotcast to make clear that backing trans rights is a “red line” for the Greens.
Their stance comes after former Green MSP Andy Wightman accused the party of becoming “censorious” on gender issues when he resigned in 2020.
Asked if someone who believes in the need for urgent and radical action on the environment, but who was also a “turbo unionist” could vote for the pro-independence party, Ms Mackay replied: “There will already be people out there who do vote for us, but don’t necessarily support independence”.
“People are more nuanced than you think,” she added.
She was then asked if someone who was committed to the climate cause but did not believe trans women were women would have a home in the Greens, Ms Mackay said: “I think that is probably a red line for us.
“Trans people have been massively targeted over the past few years, entirely wrongly, by a great number of people, and they just want to go and live their lives.
“It is a matter of basic human decency in some cases as well, and having that and having empathy for people who have been marginalised and targeted, who just want to exist in public spaces. That is becoming more and more difficult for a great many of them.”
Asked about the Supreme Court ruling that the terms sex and women in the Equality Act mean biology rather than gender identity, Mr Greer said the law could be changed.
“The Supreme Court’s job is not to make up law. The Supreme Court’s job is to interpret the law as it has been written.
“We would argue that the Equality Act clearly does need to be changed to clarify the rights of trans people, and in this case in particular, trans women.
“But there is an idea that this is somehow something new, a distraction that is taking Greens away from our core cause.
“The cause of LGBT equality has been in our DNA, in the DNA of every Green Party since our movement began in the 70s.
This is the kind of statement that would win “Your Party” votes if they were principled enough to say it
Shame the SNP can’t say the same.
Sorry Corbyn, this is the way. You lost a voter to the greens forever today
on yersel’ greens.
This just came across my feed (not a Scot but Irish hi neighbours) and fair play.
Transphobes need to stop making their inability to count higher than 2 everyone else’s problem.
Last I saw the polls on trans issues, it didn’t show that the majority of people accept trans women as women. At best they ‘go along with it’.
Are these guys allergic to votes?
Like the court?
playing into the hands of Reform.
I really hate grammar sometimes and the technicalities of it. Doesn’t it follow that if trans-women are women then Women are Women and then that just a void statement isn’t it?
I suspect what’s actually going on is much deeper society problem caused by the internet that’s left people feeling isolated and dissociated within themselves and within the community. This is just the tip of the iceberg we can all play along and pretend it’s not happening but things are only going to get worse and I dread to think what the breaking point will look like.
Quite right.
great I won’t be voting for you byeee
Oh crap, they’re gonna make me become a member again aren’t they
I wonder if that backfires on them when they have less than 10% of the overall vote in Scotland. Maybe it means that 90% of people don’t believe TWAW, or TMAM for that matter.
Keep men out of women’s spaces and keep women out of mens spaces.
Comments are closed.