THE political pushback against LGBT+ Scots is “way beyond what happened in the 1980s”, according to Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie.
Last year, police launched an investigation after Harvie received abuse from a passerby during an interview with the BBC.
The man was recorded calling Harvie, who was the first openly bisexual leader of a political party in the UK, “a deviant”.
According to Police Scotland, the proportion of hate crime charges aggravated by a person’s sexual orientation have increased from 16% to 33% over the past decade.
A recent survey also suggests that young transgender people in Scotland are much less happy than they were a decade ago due to an “unacceptable” level of intolerance displayed towards them.
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“Some of the ones who are fermenting this do understand exactly what they’re doing and are culpable for, something that is, I think, now at a level that is worse than anything in the 80s,” Harvie told The Sunday National.
“We’re now at a point beyond that.
“You’ve got a UK Government … they’ve not changed the law on discrimination against transgender people, but they’ve put a call out for people to report organisations for not discriminating.
“They put pressure on schools to out young people to their parents when they don’t feel safe.
“That’s way beyond what happened in the 80s.
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“We’re at a level now where this is profoundly dangerous. It is putting people’s lives at risk and yeah, some of the people doing it know that very well.”
He added that throughout his long career as a politician – Harvie was first elected as an MSP in 2003 – he had never faced such levels of vitriol.
“I can’t remember ever having been subjected to this level of abuse: Deviant, groomer, perve, paedophile … that kind of stuff gets bombarded at you.
“We’re all carrying these devices [mobile phones] around that are supposed to be liberating, kind of an opportunity for the whole world to communicate with one another. And they just turn into devices that direct this abuse.
“What must it be like being 14, 15? You know who you are, whether you feel safe to come out, and see this kind of stuff day after day.”
Read the full interview with Patrick Harvie in this weekend’s Sunday National.
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