At the weekend, Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman was filmed applauding as a notoriously unhinged transactivist ranted through a megaphone to a small and almost exclusively male crowd of protestors about how he was going to openly break the law by continuing to use women’s public toilets, and addressing JK Rowling with the words “We should all take a shite on you, you heinous creeping old bitch”.
At another protest, Chapman herself asserted that the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling on the correct interpretation of the Equality Act 2010 was motivated by not by a solemn consideration of the law or by the arguments of counsel who appeared before it, but by “bigotry, prejudice and hatred”.
Chapman is – incredibly – Deputy Convener of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament, and as such her comments sparked a storm of wholly justified outrage over her flagrant breach not only of Parliamentary rules but also of the law – specifically the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, which requires all MSPs to uphold the independence of the judiciary.
We are far from the only people raising concerns about the charity – we know of at least 17 separate formal complaints against LGBTYS in the past year alone, yet the OSCR has declined to open any sort of formal inquiry into them. (It carried out three such inquiries in 2024.)
But despite the OSCR’s assertion that “we strive to be transparent and accountable”, when we went to find those complaints (including, of course, the one from ourselves) to link you to them, we hit a brick wall that rapidly turned into a whole new concern.
So as promised, and having now spent 11 months trying to get answers any other way, this afternoon we had a live chat with controversial charity LGBT Youth Scotland.
In April last year we wrote to LGBT Youth Scotland asking them to explain why they were conducting activities in primary schools (and even with pre-school children) about sexual matters despite only having a remit to work with young people aged 13-25.
We received no reply, so we contacted the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, who sent a rather sniffy acknowledgement saying:
“If your concern leads us to making inquiries with the charity, we are unable to update you on the status of those inquiries. For more information about what to expect after you submit a concern, read our guidance on how OSCR deals with concerns and inquiries.”
That link, you’ll be amazed to hear, leads to a dead page.
Much of Scotland, and indeed the rest of the UK and beyond (the story below ran in the London Standard), has been grimly gripped this week by the ongoing and scarcely believable trainwreck that is Sandie Peggie Vs NHS Fife.
The tribunal has now overrun the time allotted to it, and will reconvene for another 10 days in the second half of July, ramping up the already considerable costs incurred by NHS Fife, which is in the middle of a huge financial crisis.
According to legal experts, there is little doubt about the law surrounding the dispute. NHS Fife is clearly and unambiguously in the wrong – Dr Beth Upton, the transwoman at the centre of the problem, is legally as well as biologically male, and had no lawful entitlement to be in a female changing room. The authority also appears to be in very considerable potential trouble over failing to disclose key documents and evidence when ordered by the original judge.
So it seems remarkable that the board of NHS Fife is allowing the case to continue rather than immediately conceding to save money and any more public humiliation of both itself and its staff, like the hapless nurse manager Esther Davidson who endured a very uncomfortable two days in the witness box this week, and the clearly manifestly incompetent Equality And Human Rights Lead Officer, Isla Bumba, who yesterday deleted her LinkedIn page after being identified as the person who gave Davidson incorrect and unlawful guidance.
We’ll give you three guesses as to the highly controversial and extravagantly taxpayer-funded organisation that has its rainbow fingerprints all over this story, readers.
Everyone even remotely connected to Scottish politics has known for months that the below is the case. It’s an open secret.
But what’s playing out right now is something much bigger than the fate of one or two or three individuals. It’s the entire future of the credibility of Scotland’s justice system.
Astonishingly, there isn’t a single word of apology anywhere in this statement.
There isn’t a scintilla of contrition, not the tiniest glimmer of admission of culpability or responsibility. There isn’t even a weasel-worded expression of “regret”.
Rape Crisis Scotland is unfit for purpose, and its CEO must resign.
In the 1990s, Dr. Robert Smith, a surgeon at Falkirk Royal Infirmary, performed a pair of amputations on two men. Neither of the men involved had anything physically wrong with them, but both were suffering from apotemnophilia – a rare psychiatric condition involving the desire to have healthy limbs amputated.
Sufferers, counterintuitively, claim not to feel “whole” with four limbs and obsess over having their unwanted body parts chopped off. Smith argued the surgeries were life-saving, claiming the patients would commit suicide otherwise.
Apotemnophiles, like autogynephiles, insist that there is no erotic element, but it was later discovered that one of the men Smith operated on ran an amputee fetish website.
But in fact the headline on the STV News website – whether intentionally, through innocent misunderstanding or, as we suspect, a result of being deliberately misled by government ministers – is a flat-out lie.
In fact the Scottish Government has done the exact opposite. It has taken Dr Hilary Cass’s four-year report and set it on fire, so that it can continue to irreversibly destroy the lives of Scottish children in the name of gender ideology.
agent x on The Undertaker: “In the 2011 Scottish election the SNP under Salmond won a majority of seats (69) – the only time there…” May 14, 23:51
Red on The Undertaker: “Scottish voters are catching up with the English in being scunnered. The main difference between England and Scotland is that…” May 14, 22:30
Michael Laing on The Undertaker: “@ Ross: Pish. As I’m sure you know, the SNP has sat on its hands and done nothing but undemocratically…” May 14, 21:39
100%Yes on The Undertaker: “We have bloggers, youtubers and individuals who write about Independence and make money from talking about Independence which is fine…” May 14, 21:27
Jay on The Undertaker: “100% Yes: I read your comment several times but second and third paragraphs do not make sense. Please read them…” May 14, 20:08
100%Yes on The Undertaker: “The SNP made Scotland a branch office and nothing more.” May 14, 19:32
Sideshowmanny on The Undertaker: “I don’t remember the last time I heard the SNP mention trying to get additional powers. Not only is there…” May 14, 19:28
Hatey McHateface on The Undertaker: “The crims and spivs of the not-a-country scam have made themselves fortunes selling bogus passports. I’m one of the gullible…” May 14, 19:12
Owen Mullions on The Undertaker: “You’re probably right but I’ve a macabre fascination with his descent into madness. Still, I’ll take your advice and move…” May 14, 19:05
Hatey McHateface on The Undertaker: “Great article. Good cartoon too. But the carrot is not nearly mouldy enough.” May 14, 19:02
David Holden on The Undertaker: “Perhaps it is time to just ignore James.” May 14, 18:45
Callum on The Undertaker: “The simple truth is the SNP are a road block to Indy. Until Scots realise this and act on it…” May 14, 18:18
100%Yes on The Undertaker: “For the last 11yrs the only thing the SNP has done, was to bring out policies in order to turn…” May 14, 17:56
100%Yes on The Undertaker: “In the video clip, Swinney couldn’t even bring himself to mention Independence when asked, he was avoiding the question altogether.…” May 14, 17:38
ross on The Undertaker: “we have a parliament because vast majority of people support having one we dont have independence because vast majority don’t…” May 14, 17:35
Callum on The Undertaker: “Said it for years now. The SNP is no longer an Indy party it is in fact a Devo-Nat party.…” May 14, 17:35
Ste fella on The Blindness Of Hatred: “@stu You should challenge him to a bet that SNP win no list seats At 29% of the list vote…” May 14, 17:14
sam on The Undertaker: “Reform is getting votes as a protest against all the other parties. Reform is an offshoot of UKIP and is…” May 14, 16:58
JockMcT on The Undertaker: “The elephant in the room is this. Given the evidence that SNP cannot win big on the constituency vote and…” May 14, 16:52
TURABDIN on The Undertaker: “ON THE THEME OF «UNDERTAKING» Scotland’s lawmakers, or some of them, push the sinistrr envelope on so called assisted dying,…” May 14, 16:51
James Cheyne on The Undertaker: “The Scottish Constitution cannot pass muster under a devolved parliament from Englands Westminster. Parliament As it would turn it into…” May 14, 16:43
Steven on The Undertaker: “If there is a unionist majority at the next election then surely there is no mandate for independence. Why don’t…” May 14, 16:41
Owen Mullions on The Undertaker: “James Kelly back with his 6th post of the last 7 about the man who is ‘obsessed’ with him?. I…” May 14, 16:10
wullie on The Undertaker: “Here’s a thought. Well maybe three Willie McRae shot HIMSELF in the back of the heid, thew the gun away…” May 14, 16:01
Dislogical on The Undertaker: “Didn’t the perfect storm already hit? Shame the SNP did nothing with it.” May 14, 15:33
Dislogical on The Undertaker: “In an earlier article about list votes you appeared to be predicting the SNP would have a majority. Do you…” May 14, 15:31
James Cheyne on The Undertaker: “Hear hear, Uk is not a Country.” May 14, 15:26
Peter McAvoy on The Undertaker: “I voted yes yes in 97 why can’t they use their limited powers over tax to reduce the income tax…” May 14, 15:10
Ian McCubbin on The Undertaker: “It’s as clear as day Swinney and his SNP grifting team don’t want independence. If you do vote Alba, ISP…” May 14, 15:06