IT is not always easy to say sorry, but in formally apologising to gay men convicted of now-abolished sexual offences, the First Minister has taken an important and rather moving decision. As Nicola Sturgeon said at Holyrood, Scotland has travelled a long way on gay equality and the Government’s apology is another significant step forward.
Of course, in some ways the apology was always an easy win-win for Ms Sturgeon. Attitudes to homosexuality have changed so much in recent years that the Government could make its apology and pick up the plaudits without too much risk of awkward questions.
However, there is a serious practical element to the apology, which is that anyone with a historical conviction for a same-sex offence that is now legal will be able to apply for a formal disregard. This will have a positive effect on people who are forced to explain their records when they apply for jobs or promotions.
But what next? Ms Sturgeon said the journey is not yet complete and she is right. Homophobia is still a problem in society and the evidence from some teachers is that the Government’s guidance is not having the impact it should on homophobic bullying in schools.
An apology for the mistakes of the past is most welcome, but more action to ensure that the mistakes are not repeated in future would be even better.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here