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Fantastic to see @lornaslater join @AlisonJohnstone, both elected as Green MSPs for Lothian region! This confirms we now have 8 Green MSPs across Scotland, the biggest and best Green group ever! https://twitter.com/BallotBoxScot/status/1391113486659428360
This means that the new Green Group is myself, @lornaslater @ArianeBurgessHI @markruskell @Gillian_Mac11 @MaggieChapman @Ross_Greer and @AlisonJohnstone
We also had a couple of very close calls. I'm very sad that we narrowly missed out on @CaptainKim in Glasgow and even more narrowly @Laura_Moodie in South Scotland. Both would have been exceptional MSPs, and are inspirational and much-loved colleagues.
It's also a big success for gender balance in our candidate selection. 50/50 simply wasn't good enough last time, so we went further. The result is that it's the first time any of the 5 Holyrood parties have a majority of women MSPs.
We asked people to vote like our future depends on it. Thank you so much to the record number of you who did, and who put your trust in @scottishgreens candidates. Now we'll get back to working like all our future depends on it!
One more reflection - this has been a campaign in which dangerous and toxic homophobic and transphobic attitudes have been allowed to flourish, beyond anything I've seen in all my years in Parliament.
In some cases this has been the all-too-familiar attempt to fragment the equalities movement, or pretend that gender equality and trans people's human rights are in conflict. But also some truly delusional online conspiracies against all LGBT+ people have been given space.
This has generated disgusting abuse and threats against LGBT+ people. Pop-up ego parties on both sides of the constitutional divide were the ones most deliberately stirring this up. It was good to see them firmly rejected at the ballot box.
But the disturbing truth is that these attitudes have also been harboured by major political parties. And while some of the people responsible are now out of Parliament, that's the result of defeat or retirement, rather than deselection.
The equality movement makes the greatest progress when marginalised groups stand together in solidarity. We must all resist the effort to pit us against one another. And whatever political party you're in, we need to expect better than has been seen in recent years.
