Two recent newspaper articles convey encouraging news about LGBT+ rights in Scotland, adding to the observations made in Dr. Emily McEwan-Fujita’s foreword for Lus na Tùise / Lavender, the new Gaelic poetry book by Marcas Mac an Tuairneir published by Bradan Press.
The New York Times published a long article about the increased number of openly gay politicians in Scotland:
Scotland Embraces Gay Politicians in a Profound Cultural Shift
22 October 2016
“In the span of a generation, Scotland has shed much of its traditional social conservatism and enthusiastically embraced diversity in sexuality, a process led and reinforced by a remarkable transformation in its political culture.
Homosexuality was illegal in Scotland until 1980 — in England it was decriminalized in 1967 — and as recently as 2000, billboards financed by a Christian millionaire campaigning to uphold a ban on schools’ talking about homosexuality urged Scots to ‘Protect Our Children.’
Today, in addition to the leaders of three of the five major political parties in Scotland, four ministers in the Scottish government are openly gay, as is the secretary of state for Scotland in Britain’s Conservative government. The one elected representative of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party in Scotland is gay, too.”
Related to the situation prior to the 1980 decriminalization of homosexual activity in Scotland, The Scotsman newspaper reports:
Gay Scots to be “Automatically” Pardoned for Historic Offences
25 October 2016
“All Scots men convicted of crimes relating to homosexual activity are to receive an ‘automatic’ pardon and have their records wiped, justice secretary Michael Matheson announced today.
The move was hailed as a ‘historic’ at Holyrood and goes further than a similar measure unveiled by UK ministers last week.
Mr Matheson told MSPs today that there are men in Scotland who still have convictions for same-sex sexual activity which only became lawful north of the border in 1980.
‘We must right this wrong,’ he said. ”We will introduce an automatic pardon for people convicted so that they know they are absolved fully of that conviction.”
Wonderful news on both fronts!