{"id":313329,"date":"2025-08-03T01:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T01:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/313329\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T01:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T01:37:15","slug":"now-edinburgh-zoo-caught-up-in-transgendering-row-over-links-with-controversial-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/313329\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Edinburgh Zoo caught up in ‘transgendering’ row over links with controversial group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edinburgh Zoo is at the centre of a growing row over its links with a controversial gay and transgender rights group which was once led by a paedophile.<\/p>\n

Bosses at the popular tourist attraction said \u2018engaging\u2019 with LGBT<\/a> Youth Scotland (LGBTYS) provides it with access to staff equality training, as part of a drive to ensure visitors and employees \u2018feel safe and welcome\u2019.<\/p>\n

It is the latest organisation to sign up to the group\u2019s charter despite accusations that it promotes radical trans \u2018ideology\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Mail revealed earlier this year that Police Scotland had paid LGBTYS more than \u00a33,500 for training courses – and for 500 \u2018purple button badges\u2019 to show solidarity with the gay and trans community.<\/p>\n

Now a campaign group is calling for members of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), a wildlife conservation charity which runs the zoo, to raise their concern with zoo managers.<\/p>\n

Dr Stuart Waiton, chairman of the Scottish Union for Education (SUE) and a sociologist at Abertay University in Dundee, said families had contacted the SUE about the \u2018transgendering of Edinburgh Zoo\u2019.<\/p>\n

He said: \u2018Despite the Supreme Court ruling [in April] that raises questions about transgender<\/a> ideology and the claim that \u201csex\u201d is not binary, we still find that organisations in Scotland are continuing to fund organisations that train their staff to believe the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unsurprisingly, we now find that there are families who have decades of commitment to Edinburgh<\/a> Zoo but find themselves in a position where they can no longer support the work of the RZSS.<\/p>\n

\"Edinburgh <\/p>\n

Edinburgh Zoo is at the centre of a growing row over its links with LGBT Youth Scotland<\/p>\n

\u2018One concerned parent has not only cancelled her membership with the zoo but has drafted a letter to encourage others to do likewise.<\/p>\n

\u2018As she notes, there really is nothing in the charitable objective of the RZSS that requires them to sponsor the transgender ideology of LGBTYS.\u2019<\/p>\n

A recent SUE newsletter urges RZSS members to send a \u2018letter of concern\u2019 to the charity.<\/p>\n

James Rennie, the former chief executive of LGBTYS, is serving life in prison for sexually assaulting a three-month-old after being convicted in 2009 along with seven others on sex abuse charges.<\/p>\n

Andrew Easton, who co-wrote a schools guide for the youth charity, was convicted last year of sharing indecent images of children.<\/p>\n

He was never an employee or volunteer with LGBTYS but in 2009 he was a young person who attended its services. It was then that he helped to write the guide.<\/p>\n

LGBTYS has been supported by SNP ministers and receives \u00a31million per year from taxpayer-funded organisations.<\/p>\n

Last year, Rosie Millard quit as chairman of the BBC\u2019s Children in Need charity after protesting about grants given to the charity.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Tories have said LGBTYS is \u2018mired in scandal\u2019 and that the SNP Government should suspend public funding from the organisation \u2018until it gets its act together\u2019.<\/p>\n

Schools which signed up to the charity\u2019s scheme, for a fee normally of at least \u00a3850, were ranked on how well they catered for LGBT pupils and received guides on how best to achieve this.<\/p>\n

Secondary pupils have been encouraged to sign LGBT rainbow flags, with children asked to \u2018celebrate the rainbow\u2019 through the way they dress, and by decorating their schools – described by the Campaign for Real Education as \u2018brainwashing\u2019.<\/p>\n

LGBTYS insists that \u2018with [an] increasingly toxic and polarised public debate, it\u2019s vital that all young people feel safe, supported and included\u2019.<\/p>\n

According to LGBTYS, being accredited with its charter sends a \u2018positive message\u2026 that your organisation is a champion of LGBT inclusion where LGBTQ+ employees, students, customers, or service users will be safe, supported and included\u2019.<\/p>\n

RZSS refused to say how much it has spent on the LGBTYS charter process.<\/p>\n

It is understood one RSZZ membership has been cancelled as a result of the row so far.<\/p>\n

An RZSS spokesman said: \u2018We are continuing to work through the charter with the aim of completing the process by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our support for the LGBTQ+ community doesn\u2019t change our mission to care for animals and protect endangered species around the world.<\/p>\n

\u2018It simply reflects the belief that everyone deserves to feel safe and welcome, whether visiting the zoo or working within it.\u2019<\/p>\n

No one was available for comment at LGBTYS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edinburgh Zoo is at the centre of a growing row over its links with a controversial gay and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,92,1102,4884,12,712,16,15,20469],"class_list":{"0":"post-313329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-us-supreme-court"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114962277794677394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}