Scotland has been at the heart of this toxicity, with high-profile public figures endlessly ramping up dehumanising rhetoric, specifically against trans people. Now here we are. Yesterday, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN’s independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, reported on his 10-day visit to Britain. Good luck finding much coverage in our media.
“I am deeply concerned,” he said, “about increased bias-motivated incidents of harassment, threats, and violence against LGBT people … All of this is attributed … to the toxic nature of the public debate surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The UN news service said: “Abusive rhetoric by politicians, the media and social commentators has trickled down to create a culture of increasingly abusive and hateful speech against LGBT persons.”
If there was ever a ‘debate’ to be had about trans rights, the way Scotland, and the rest of Britain, handled matters wasn’t it. Rather than hold a humane conversation about extending human rights, a myriad powerful, wealthy and well-platformed voices targeted the smallest, weakest sliver of society, subjecting them to prolonged and relentless campaigns of vilification.
Shame on Scotland. Shame on the rest of Britain. “Politicians,” Madrigal-Borloz said, “must carry out evidence-based evaluations, free from stigma and preconception.”
Britain has also plummeted down the table of countries for LGBT human rights. Evidently, Scotland played a significant role in this disgraceful achievement. Britain is now ranked 17 out of 49 countries in Europe for LGBT human rights. Nine years ago, the UK was ranked first across Europe.
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Malta now comes first in rankings with regard to “respect of human rights” for LGBT folk, achieving a score of 89%. It is followed by Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Iceland, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, France, Portugal, Montenegro, Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland … and then the UK with a score of 53%.
A report by ILGA-Europe, the continent-wide LGBT association, said that “anti-trans rhetoric continued to cause serious damage in the UK … with continued hostile reporting in mainstream newspapers”.
“Politicians,” it noted, “also continued the crackdown on trans rights.” ILGA-Europe added: “Hate crimes against LGBT people in the UK have reached dramatic numbers.” The rise in hate crime is attributed “in part to anti-trans media reporting”…
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