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For folk unclear on what's happened in Scotland: the former First Minister, a man accused of 14 counts of sexual assault and attempted rape, has launched a new political party and its first major policy event was organised around attacking trans rights.
The event also circulated a baseless conspiracy theory that LGBT+ organisations were campaigning to lower the age of sexual consent. When this was debunked and the new party was asked to apologise, they doubled down. https://theferret.scot/claim-snp-funding-paedophile-charter-groups-ffs/
The conspiracy theory has been developing in the anti-trans social media sphere for a fortnight ( https://transsafety.network/posts/alba-whrc-conspiracy/) and is intimately linked to anti-semitic, far right and Q-adjacent conspiracy theorists in the US ( https://healthliberationnow.com/2021/04/12/the-mechanisms-of-tanon-what-is-tanon/#I_What_is_TAnon).
As I briefly discussed here, this tendency in Scottish politics has been years in the making. It has been defended and cultivated by centrists and sensibles all along, because trans people are such an easy scapegoat. https://harryjosiegiles.medium.com/trans-in-the-uk-what-the-hell-are-we-going-to-do-73fef741cef6#ab75
Alba is using UKIP culture war tactics. It does not need broad appeal. It needs to whip up enough media attention, using as much controversy as it cares to, to gain enough name recognition to win twathree seats. Those seats will be seen as validating its tactics, so it can build.
There is no electoral incentive for Alba to back down, collaborate or build consensus. There is every incentive for them to be combative, controversial, rile up a base, repeat lies. When you're responding, consider whether or not you're helping them.
I have felt profoundly sick, as a trans person in Scotland, for years, as this scapegoating, scaremongering and demonising built pace and legitimacy in the public sphere. I am praying each day that this is where the wave breaks. I'm scared that it will keep building.
What has kept me going through the last few years is the support and solidarity of trans folk, and our work building towards to our liberation. Also hill-walking and bird-watching. I'm profoundly alienated from Scotland as a nation, but I've found better kinds of home instead.
