Hansard

I congratulate Patrick Harvie on securing the debate and on his speech about this important event. I will clarify one bit of LGBT history at the start. I mean no offence to Patrick Harvie but, contrary to reports that occasionally appear in newspapers, he and I have not lived together, do not live together and—I assure members—will never live together.

I raise that factual inaccuracy, which has appeared in print more than once, because it resurfaced in the disgraceful article about the motion in the Scottish Sunday Express on 14 January. That report entirely erroneously alleged that members who supported the motion had plans

"to force children as young as six to celebrate gay culture at school".

There are of course no such plans. That is homophobic scaremongering of the worst kind. It is not only offensive to LGBT people, but dangerous, because it implies that homophobia is acceptable. Yes, LGBT history month encourages schools to become involved and provides materials for teachers on issues such as ending the official invisibility of LGBT people in schools and developing policies that respect their rights. However, most important, those materials are about tackling bullying, name calling and abusive language, which happen too often in our schools.

I hope that the editor of the Scottish Sunday Express does not condone homophobic bullying and that the newspaper will consider running an article on that issue in a future edition, but I doubt it. Very few young people read the Scottish Sunday Express anyway, so such an article would probably not make much difference.

I am pleased that we in Scotland are taking a more enlightened approach to the issue. I congratulate the Scottish Executive on working with LGBT Youth Scotland on homophobic bullying in schools and on having the courage to award the contract for the next phase of the anti-bullying project better futures to LGBT Youth Scotland along with the Scottish Association for Mental Health.

According to new research that Stonewall has conducted, the majority of young lesbian and gay pupils have experienced homophobic bullying in school and the majority of them do not feel safe when in school. Many young people are confused, isolated and scared about their sexual identity when at school, and homophobia, which manifests itself in physical or psychological bullying, can cause serious mental illnesses and even suicide.

Schools should be involved not in promoting homosexuality—that is the phrase that is often used—but in properly supporting all children, regardless of their sexuality, and in combating homophobia, which too often results from ignorance and the media coverage that we have seen in the Scottish Sunday Express and which reared its head in yesterday's appalling Daily Mail.

LGBT history month provides a chance to look back with pride on what has been achieved in the long struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and recognition. We have come a long way in my lifetime. Let us not forget that homosexuality was still illegal in Scotland 27 years ago.

The bitter fight against section 28 is still so recent in the Parliament's memory, so it is perhaps miraculous that the House of Lords voted last week overwhelmingly in favour of keeping intact the goods and services protections for Northern Ireland. However, I am concerned that the United Kingdom Government appears to be backtracking on that important equalities issue. Discrimination is discrimination. It would be unacceptable to backtrack on discrimination on the grounds of race, religion and gender and it is unacceptable on the ground of sexuality, too. Any exemptions that are written into equalities legislation represent discrimination.

We should not forget that horrific incidents still occur throughout the world. Patrick Harvie touched on the Nazi death camps; we should also remember that LGBT people were imprisoned, killed and tortured at Russian gulags. Such incidents continue throughout the world today.

Eighteen months ago, we learned of the horrific torture and execution of two teenage boys in Iran simply for having committed homosexual acts. I wish that I could say that such torture and execution is unusual, but it is a fact that homosexual acts continue to be outlawed and that they continue to carry extreme penalties in many countries.

LGBT history month provides many opportunities. It allows us a chance to reflect on the lives and contributions to society of LGBT people, to think positively about what has been achieved and to look to the future with optimism. However, we must not forget the plight of LGBT people in other places, our bitter history and the prejudices that still exist in our society. Now is the time to brace ourselves so that LGBT people continue to meet the challenges that they face throughout Scotland as individuals and as a community.