A big fuck off to my homophobic family who harassed me again on my birthday yesterday (during Pride month), calling me “too proud” for estranging myself from them.
I am actually very proud of myself for building a better life for myself far away from their pathetic homophobia 🌈
I almost killed myself when I was a child because I thought being gay made life not worth living.
The exact same forces which made me suicidal 10 years ago are killing trans people today.
The fact that gay and lesbian lawmakers would roll their eyes at that fact makes me sick.
When I was 14, my mum told me she didn’t have a gay son - I could be gay or be part of the family but not both.
For years I decided to stay closeted for my own safety.
Eventually, aged 21, I chose to respect who I am, rather than try to win the respect of people who hate me.
Conversion therapy almost killed me when I was a child.
It robbed me of my childhood and my home. It gave me PTSD that means I take pills every day & wake up screaming from nightmares most nights.
Listen to the survivors when we tell our stories.
Ban conversion therapy 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
He won’t repeal the ban on protest
He won’t block the Illegal Migration Bill
He won’t end First Past The Post
He won’t undo damages of Brexit
He won’t abolish tuition fees
He won’t tax the rich fairly
He won’t crack down on spiralling rents
How is this different from the Tories?
To all of the transphobes in the replies spreading lies about trans people and sexual crime:
I have never been sexually harassed or abused by a trans person.
I have been sexually harassed or abused by transphobes, including yesterday.
Trans people aren’t the threat - you are.
I am so fucking tired.
Tired of having to explain time and time and time again to our so-called leaders that I didn’t deserve to be tortured. I didn’t deserve to be suicidal as a child. I didn’t deserve to have my life broken like it was. Nobody does.
#BanConversionTherapy
🏳️🌈
'I condemn the use of coercion in all settings'
SNP leadership hopeful Kate Forbes tells
@LouiseScottITV
some 'coercion' tactics are 'abhorrent' when asked about banning conversion therapy
Hey
@OranMorGlasgow
, do you know
@AllianceLGB
are a transphobic hate group who want to deprive trans people of their rights?
As long as you’re happy to take transphobes’ money, you’ve lost this customer 💰
No queer rights without trans rights!
#GWithTheT
#BoycottTERFs
More people in Glasgow than ever before are struggling to feed their families and heat their homes
Thank god we’re not wasting any money on a big party for an unelected head of state
For 70 years, Her Majesty has been a towering figure of hope for our country.
The fact Glasgow City Council has NO events for her platinum jubilee is shameful.
However, like many Glaswegians, I'll be celebrating this historic milestone.
#PlatinumJubilee
This government will kill trans children.
Forced outing of children to families will take us back to an age of state-sanctioned conversion therapy
Meanwhile in Glasgow, teachers are getting trained on how to create trans inclusive classrooms and how to respect trans children 🏳️⚧️
“What is right is that parents know what is going on with their children at school"
Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch discusses forthcoming guidance on trans pupils in schools
#BBCLauraK
"This is not two governments not working together. This is us working very hard, and the UK Government torpedoing us."
@lornaslater
is a credit to our party and our parliament 💚
"In truth the tide of progress cannot be halted. It feels slow as we live it day by day, but in time it is dramatic. Let us hope, indeed redouble our determination that he will have the opportunity to witness change just as transformational and more. It is still needed."
They won’t tax more.
They won’t spend more.
They won’t pay workers more.
They won’t devolve more power.
They won’t scrap the rape clause.
They won’t deliver free school meals.
They won’t repeal the ban on protest.
They won’t scrap Rwanda deportations.
What would Labour change?
🚨 BREAKING: Labour will KEEP the Tories' policies on public spending.
The Sunday Times reports that the Shadow Cabinet expects "to have no more money" for public services.
The party has also ruled out raising taxes on the rich.
Teachers were the only adults I felt safe coming out to.
If I’d known they would tell my parents, I’d never have been able to talk about my sexuality and I’d probably have died by suicide as a child.
Horrifying that this still needs said - forcibly outing children is bad.
EXCLUSIVE in tomorrow's Sunday Mail: Parents are being blocked from finding out their child has changed gender in school
#TomorrowsPapersToday
@sgfmann
The Scottish Government is going to challenge the UK Government’s shameful misuse of the S35 order to attack the Gender Recognition Reform Bill 🏳️⚧️
This is what political leadership looks like 👇
Boris Johnson’s statement doesn’t apply in Scotland
Boris Johnson’s statement doesn’t apply in Scotland
Boris Johnson’s statement doesn’t apply in Scotland
Boris Johnson’s statement doesn’t apply in Scotland
Boris Johnson’s statement doesn’t apply in Scotland
The Byres Road bike lane is getting bollards! 🚲
I’ve been working with officers for almost a year now to get these added, stopping inconsiderate parking from blocking the bike lane 🅿️
Not long to go now until all of the Phase 1 (Partick Cross to Uni Ave) work is complete!
When transphobic & homophobic hate and violence inevitably escalates even further, the Prime Minister will have blood on his hands
Every politician from every party has a responsibility to call out this genocidal language and stand up for trans people under relentless attack 🏳️⚧️
'We shouldn't be bullied into believing people can be any sex they want to be, they can't. A man is a man and a woman is a woman', says Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube
Putting trans people in therapy to try to get them to “feel comfortable in their birth sex” is conversion therapy
Anyone advocating this position is attempting to justify conversion therapy and undermine a conversion therapy ban
This is why I have concerns around Joanna Cherry
NEW: I asked SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes what she was apologising for if she stands by remarks to
@Channel4News
that she would have voted against same-sex marriage.
Ms Forbes says she wants to talk about issues that 'really matter'.
“I’m so happy that my fate brought me to live here in Glasgow where the people are so connected they’ll come out onto the streets to help one of their own.” ✊
This is Lakhvir Singh who was locked in the back of UK Immigration Enforcement van for 8 hours today, before ‘people power’ in the Glasgow community forced a u-turn. He’s now released and back with family. Our exclusive on
@itvnews
at 10 tonight.
What on earth are you talking about?!
Glasgow literally already has a 12-month LEZ exemption for taxis, provided they've shown an intention to become compliant - Labour voted for it!
Glasgow Labour's failure to grasp basic points of fact is mortifying
🔗
We want an LEZ scheme that doesn't drive taxi drivers out of the trade.
They need time and support to adapt.
That's why a 12-month option is required until 1st June 2024.
Last night, we were out for our 4th anniversary dinner and decided that planning an election campaign wasn’t enough so thought we should add planning a wedding to the list ✨
We’re getting married! ❤️
Proud of our city where thousands of people turned out to say that trans people deserve dignity, respect and love 🏳️⚧️
But check the hatred in the replies - “perverts”, “paedophiles”, “deviants”, “groomers” - word for word the same abuse as the 80s.
We won then and we’ll win now.
“I’m proud of my faith… I don’t use my faith as a basis for legislation”
@HumzaYousaf
I have no issue with people of faith in politics - some of them are my best friends. I have issue with people using faith to justify denying rights from others 🏳️🌈
New: John Swinney to drop Nicola Sturgeon's Holyrood ban on conversion practices. SNP MSPs will support UKG bill applying to Scotland. Hearing concern Scots only legislation may have been hit by legal issues. SNP keen not to reopening internal row
NEW: SNP MSP criticises 'witch hunt' against Kate Forbes.
Christine Grahame says leadership candidate has a right to her views on same-sex marriage 'which she doesn't impose on anyone else'.
Says she hasn't decided who to back for SNP leadership.
Story:
For every transphobe, Tory, “gender critical” and trans rights-sceptic out there, remember Leelah Alcorn 🏳️⚧️
8 years ago today, Leelah died by suicide after years of conversion therapy, rejection and hatred for her trans identity
Acceptance isn’t wrong. Rejection and bigotry is.
Leelah Alcorn would be 25 now. She *should be* 25 now.
Her parents said that she had been trying to assert herself as a girl since the age of 4, and yet they still denied who she was so much that after she died, they buried her in a suit and tie.
EXCLUSIVE: UP to 15 SNP rebels could derail Humza Yousaf’s controversial bid to ban conversion therapy
But ministers may not bring a bill forward till 2025 in the hope UK Labour will bring their own version and bail them out of a problem
Queer people are under attack like never before and we need leaders to stand by us
A real shame that Labour have chosen to throw trans people under the bus because Keir Starmer says so
Anas Sarwar has said 'everybody has lost' since the passing of Scotland’s gender reforms as he suggested he would not vote for the bill again in its current form.
The Cass Review set inappropriate arbitrary criteria for data in order to exclude any evidence which showed positive outcomes for trans people accessing trans healthcare
This project had a predetermined, transphobic outcome. Politicians need to scrutinise, not lap up bad science
🚨 BREAKING: Labour pledges to implement the recommendations of the "Cass Review" into trans healthcare.
The recommendations include barring under-25s from using gender clinics.
Wes Streeting said Labour will "work to implement the expert recommendations of the Cass Review".
I see Anas Sarwar is saying “no one voted for [the deal] being rubber-stamped by a tiny minority of political obsessives"
The Scottish people voted for parties who then decide how to work together. That’s the basis of power-sharing & a foundational principle of a PR Parliament.
If you want an illustration of how transphobia inevitably leads to homophobia, check out the comments and quote tweets 👇
Well done ‘LGB rights groups’ for bringing the idea that homosexuality = paedophilia back into fashion
It’s hard to put into words just how much this means
10 years ago, while we were both in the Church, my mum used her beliefs to justify putting me through conversion therapy.
10 years on, the Church has said that conversion therapy is wrong.
It’s good to see progress happen 🏳️🌈
Hatred is sadly now part-and-parcel of being an out queer person in public life.
I expect to be called a paedophile any time I tweet. I don’t leave the house without my panic alarm. Abuse isn’t ‘if’, it’s ‘when’.
Transphobic politicians have put all LGBTQ+ lives on the line 🏳️🌈
Was interviewing Patrick Harvie at the Scottish Green's Rutherglen and Hamilton West launch this afternoon when we were interrupted by this.
An unpleasant situation handled in a dignified manner by the Scot Green co-leader:
As a working class student from a deprived school, I’m very fucking angry that the SQA have thrown hard-working working class children under the bus.
If it was my results day today, I might not be going to uni solely based on wealth. I thought we were closing the attainment gap?
After years of campaigners fighting for this, Glasgow is finally going to get a safe consumption room
A long overdue step away from criminalisation and towards a common-sense public health approach to addiction
BREAKING: The first official drugs consumption room in Scotland has been given the go-ahead.
It's been approved by authorities in Glasgow where the pilot scheme will be based.
Story to follow
Growing up, going through conversion therapy, I didn’t think it was possible to be proud to be gay.
I’m proud to have been part of the campaign to end conversion therapy and with
#GreensInGovernment
we’re finally going to ban this evil practice in Scotland
#GlasgowPride
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
At Ewan’s family for Christmas and got my own little pile of presents to open in the morning. After years of hostile Christmases or Christmases on my own, it’s nice to be spending a Christmas with family 🎄🎁 🥰
Today I have launched Green Labour, alongside unveiling our climate recovery plan.
If you care about confronting the Climate Emergency, but don’t want to go back to the old arguments, then vote Labour.
10 years ago I voted No - I believed the unionist politicians who said the Union would get better, the Union could work for Scotland.
I was wrong. Austerity, Brexit, attacks on Holyrood - the union is not working for Scotland.
I can’t wait for the chance to vote Yes 🏴
🏴The independence referendum inspired people across Scotland to believe we can do better.
🗣️Ten years on,
@lornaslater
will lead a debate in Parliament on building a fairer, greener, independent Scottish Republic.
#GreenYes
#IndyRef
The day is finally here 💚🌈☺️
After years of campaigning, we have finally published the consultation on the law to
#BanConversionTherapy
Soon we can live in a country which is clear: LGBTQ+ people don’t need converted. We are worthy of safety, love and respect, just as we are.
After originally suggesting conversion therapy could be justified against trans people, SNP MP
@joannaccherry
is now opposing & attacking a conversion therapy ban at all, counter to SNP policy
Scotland has an MP who is, in effect, promoting conversion therapy. This cannot go on.
Today was the last day of SAAS for many.
We won't receive more student finance until mid-September.
We can't apply for Universal Credit.
We almost certainly won't be able to find work.
Will
@scotgov
make
@saastweet
continue payments over summer? If not, what do we live on?
Here we are again - reports of hate crimes with a transgender aggravator have TRIPLED in Scotland. Greens have slammed this as a result of a "cynical campaign" of smears against the LGBT community
Full report 👇
📸AGC (me)
@PaulJSweeney
Paul, you invited ADS, Thales, Raytheon, BAE and Leonardo in to the Scottish Parliament.
You were giving credibility and access to companies which are complicit in genocide. It’s not disinformation to point that out.
Six hours ago, JK Rowling posted a tweet making fun of a police force highlighting its work to engage with the LGBTQ+ community
Institutional bigotry that puts all queer lives at risk isn’t a joke
Exclusive: Metropolitan Police officers investigating serial killer Stephen Port made assumptions about gay men which “cannot be ignored”, a leaked police watchdog report has found.
A victim’s partner says officers were “homophobic”, which the Met has denied.
Rachel Reeves could copy Scotland, and change the income tax so that higher earners pay a bit more.
That would raise £11 billion every year - enough to abolish the two child limit and undo Tory austerity.
Seems like an easy decision to me.
For anyone who doesn’t know, there are 42 Orange Walks taking place today across Glasgow, including the biggest march of the year.
Expect major disruption and delays to transport across the city, and I’d encourage anyone likely to feel unsafe to avoid them if you can.
We did it! 💚🗳
Thank you so much to everyone in Partick East/Kelvindale who put their trust in Greens to deliver a fairer & greener Glasgow!
And an unbelievably big thanks to everyone who knocked doors, posted posters, delivered leaflets & everything else to make this possible
Isn’t it ridiculous that there are multiple days in the year where we have to give up our city? Where we can’t safely or confidently walk our own streets?
Trying to change someone else’s sexuality or gender identity is conversion therapy
Conversion therapy is hateful
Conversion therapy is harmful
Conversion therapy doesn’t work
But
#conversiontherapy
is still legal in Scotland. Fill in the consultation and help us change that 🏳️🌈
🏳️⚧️
@glasgowgreens
councillors have just secured a commitment to rollout training on creating trans-inclusive classrooms and tackling transphobic bullying across Glasgow’s schools
While
@Douglas4Moray
&
@ScotTories
wage fascist culture wars,
@scottishgreens
are protecting kids 💚
It’s totally inappropriate to hold a show like this for kids under the age of six.
Story time for babies and young kids shouldn’t focus on gender or sexual identity.
That is common sense and on behalf of constituents who’ve contacted me, I’ve raised this with the council.
Until he was shamed out of it by the Greens, Paul Sweeney was planning to throw a party for arms dealers who profit while civilians get blown up.
That’s what I would call sickening.
Everything that is toxic about the Westminster institution in a nutshell. A reasonable change to ensure a wider debate on this catastrophic conflict and to improve the prospect of consensus on a call for a humanitarian ceasefire descends into partisan party posturing.
Sickening.
Pleased to hear that the Record Factory weren’t told who the booking was for, and now that they know, they’ve cancelled the booking
Bigotry has consequences! 💚🏳️⚧️
I’ll be writing to the Record Factory to state my disappointment that they’re welcoming the business of a party obsessed with transphobia and led by a man with so many allegations of sexual harassment against him.
Alba have no place in the independence campaign nor in our ward
Children have rights, including the right to make informed decisions on their healthcare. This has been the case for decades!
Sad that some parents seem to think that their children are their possessions - to be controlled - rather than people in their own right.
My 12 year old son received this letter from our GP practice this morning.
Is there anyone else out there who’s 12 year old received anything like this before their 13th birthday?
I’m shocked. This is so sinister.
I’m grateful to
@patrickharvie
for being one of the very few people over the past week giving voice to republicanism, a view held by millions in this country
After 7 years of abuse and neglect and 2 years of fighting, six months ago today I went on radio and TV to talk about my estrangement and expose my birth family for the homophobes they are.
Six months after cutting off all contact I’ve never been happier.
It gets better 💚🌈
“No one loves children more than their parents”
Tell that to every queer kid disowned, kicked out or put through conversion therapy by their unloving parents
The Tories are the real danger to children, not those of us trying to protect them from hate 🏳️🌈
The 3rd principle is that parents should be included in all decisions relating to a child's requests to socially transition.
No one loves children more than their parents and it is wrong to exclude parents from what can be a pathway to irreversible medical decisions (4/6)
Another day, another attack from the right on queer politicians standing up for queer kids & rights 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
No matter how much the Tories don’t like it, I’m not going to apologise for saying the truth - Tories’ trans guidance will out children and cost lives
Conversion therapy took a lot from me: my health, my childhood, my family.
No one else should have to face what I did but I need your help to ban conversion therapy
Take 5 minutes tonight to complete the consultation -
We need every response we can get!
Trying to change someone else’s sexuality or gender identity is conversion therapy
Conversion therapy is hateful
Conversion therapy is harmful
Conversion therapy doesn’t work
But
#conversiontherapy
is still legal in Scotland. Fill in the consultation and help us change that 🏳️🌈
I want a pro-independence majority in Holyrood next year. I don’t want an SNP majority.
Without constructive opposition to keep them in check, an SNP govt would be a disaster for trans people, sex workers, tenants, students and the environment.
The SNP doesn’t own independence.
This afternoon
@AshtenRegan
read out the letter of a parent who’s trying to suppress the gender of their own child, because they don’t like it.
GRA reform needs to be quickly followed by a conversion therapy ban to protect all of the queer kids out there from abusive parents 🌈
Ash Regan says she won't support the bill overall but back amendments that will safeguard children.
She says a mother wrote to her who removes all agency from her autistic trans child. She says social transition is a coercive practice that has led this family down a dark path.
So today in Scottish Labour:
🥀 North Lanarkshire Labour voted to put a Tory in a leadership position
🥀 Edinburgh Labour backed a Tory amendment to allow strike-breaking against their own cleansing staff
🚨 BREAKING: Labour has welcomed the government's new guidance regarding trans children.
Labour's Shadow Education Secretary says she welcomes the guidance, adding that the issue should be approached with "children's well-being being front and centre".
Family members are one of the most likely perpetrators of conversion therapy.
It’s a sad fact but sometimes children face harm from families and need help.
Sometimes “leaving children alone” means leaving children to face harm without protection.
Nice homophobic undertones btw
For when we choose the national anthem for an independent Scotland, I think we should do it like Eurovision with popular and judge votes, but instead of European countries, we’d go round all 32 local authorities
I have never found it so difficult to be out and queer as I have these past few weeks.
There’s only so many times you can be called a paedophile before it starts to take its toll.
Queer people aren't inanimate objects for debate. We're living, breathing human beings, and right now I'm really scared of the backlash against us. I didn't think this could happen, but it is, and it's even making me afraid to run this project which otherwise brings me great joy.