LGBT members of Scottish Labour have expressed concerns after a lobbyist for an organisation that supports conversion therapy was selected to stand for the party in May’s council elections.
Kieran Turner is the head of public leadership and Scottish advocacy for the Evangelical Alliance, which describes itself as the “oldest and largest evangelical unity movement in the UK”.
They have a "traditional biblically orthodox understanding" when it comes to LGBT issues.
They say that "life-long marriages between one man and one woman are the only relationships capable of honouring the sacred nature of sexual activity".
On transgender issues, they say that "cross-gender identification is a concern because it distorts the creational order of male and female."
READ MORE: SNP policy adviser and currency guru suspended over ‘racist’ Priti Patel comment
They've also recently published a resource for member churches that talks about "therapeutic interventions" for transgender people. This would prioritise "helping gender dysphoric patients reconcile with their birth sex if possible."
It also says while the church seeks "to support those struggling with gender dysphoria, we can resist and oppose forms of transgender ideology which offer alternative, radically secular ideas about what it means to be human."
LGBT+ Labour, the official lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender affiliate of the Scottish Labour Party, said they would expect Turner to support the party's policy positions.
A spokesperson said: "Scottish Labour is the party of equality, having abolished section 28, introduced civil partnerships and making clear commitments in its manifesto to reform the Gender Recognition Act.
“There must be no place for anti-LGBT+ discrimination in the Labour Party and we expect all candidates to follow the code of conduct and the party rules."
Former Labour candidate Heather Herbert said she was “saddened, but not surprised,” by the selection.
Ms Herbert, who is trans, and recently defected to the Scottish Greens, said: “The Labour party has a hard-fought-for policy of opposing all forms of conversion therapy and supporting LGBT+ people, and the current crop of MSP is by far more supportive than the last cohort. However, policies are just words on paper unless there is a culture within the party of supporting LGBT+ people.”
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “Every Scottish Labour candidate is expected to abide by our values - especially with regards to opposing forms of prejudice or hatred.
“The Scottish Labour Party will act on evidence that any candidate has fallen short of these standards.”
The Evangelical Alliance has offices in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast, and are active in Scottish politics, regularly contributing to consultations in the parliament. They have links with Christian politicians from all parties.
Their online leadership conference tonight is being attended by SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes.
One of Mr Turner’s predecessors at the organisation was Jeremy Balfour, who is now a Tory MSP.
Mr Turner did not respond to requests for comment.
During a debate in Holyrood on Wednesday, Labour MSPs were among those calling for new legislation to end conversion therapy.
Paul O'Kane said that evidence showed that the majority of conversion practices are carried out in a faith setting.
"As a person of faith, I find that horrifying and, as a gay person, I have found that terrifying," he said.
He quoted one survivor who had given evidence to MSPs, who said: “I’m not sure I could ever put into enough words the effect it has had on my life. I mean, it has nearly cost me my life on several occasions because I could not cope with who I was—who I am.
"I feel robbed of joy, of safety, of self-worth, of opportunity, of who I actually am, and who I should have been, free to explore and live my life. So much of what I went on to experience, and how I have struggled to navigate through life has stemmed from this.”
Earlier this month, Labour came under fire after Henry Dunbar, the former world leader of the Orange Order was selected to stand for North Lanarkshire Council.
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 hereComments are closed on this article