ANDY Wightman has been the Green Party’s most effective parliamentarian so his loss should produce serious heart-searching (Wightman quits Greens over lack of debate on gender row, December 19).
It is also a prompt to many of us who have views on the trans debate, but who have chosen not to engage with it, to step forward. In my case not because I wanted to avoid controversy but because in a world of huge social and economic inequality and widespread injustice, it seems a very marginal issue. However in the face of so much aggressive witch-hunting, perhaps we need to show some solidarity.
READ MORE: Andy Wightman quits 'censorious' Scottish Greens over transgender row
I certainly don’t apply this criticism to all trans people. My guess is that there is a significant proportion of them who are not comfortable with what is apparently done on their behalf. I have intellectual and some practical concerns about much of the trans discourse. Far from being gender emancipating, I find it seeks to entrench stereotypes often in a very crude way.
I recognise that there are a small number of people who have a strong emotional need to live out their lives in a different social gender from their biological sex, and we need to find ways of accommodating this. But not without qualifications.
For example, there should not be an automatic right for trans women to take part in competitive women’s sports or to share protected women’s spaces. This does not mean that they never can, just that it is not an unqualified right. I also believe that giving puberty-blocking drugs to children should be prohibited. I can remember that in the 1960s there were some individuals and at least one lobbying group who openly advocated the legalisation of sex between adults and children as long as the children said they liked it. We have moved on.
Debate on these contentious issues need not be intolerant and abusive. As a parliamentary candidate in 1978, I was invited to speak to a Catholic monastic order in the constituency. I expected and was prepared for a difficult argument on abortion rights. In fact my views were treated with courtesy and tolerance. If you can’t treat someone like Andy Wightman with similar tolerance and respect, you have problems.
Isobel Lindsay
Biggar
READING Andy Wightman’s letter concerning his resignation was saddening. He writes in mature and moderate terms concerning his past treatment, when he was “admonished” for attending a meeting on gender and women’s sex-based rights with speakers including Julie Bindel.
The threat of further disciplinary action – culminating in possible suspension, deselection or expulsion – has led to his resignation. This threat was because he wished to vote for an amendment changing the wording of the Forensic Medical Services Bill from “gender” to “sex”. An unfortunate way, to say the least, for the Greens to treat one of their best MSPs.
The response from Connor Beaton of Rise is a complete contrast in tone, being unpleasantly savage in fact, accusing Mr Wightman of “throwing trans people under the bus for plaudits from Tories and bigots” and ending with “good riddance”.
What a completely disproportionate response to a man whose work in public life is greater than most people’s contribution, MSP or not. What is about these issues that engenders such outright viciousness?
It’s more than time to return to a more reasonable form of discourse.
Margaret Brogan
West Kilbride
I’M sorry that Andy Wightman has felt it necessary to quit the Green party, especially over the “trans” issue. I thought that after the disruption it causes in the SNP, they would have left it to individual MSPs’ discretion. Maybe the desire to be seen as “woke” was too much for them and overruled sense.
It’s time MSPs started getting serious and put concerns such as those Andy Wightman expresses to the forefront and cut the self-indulgence too often coming to the fore.
Drew Reid
Falkirk
GEORGE Mitchell (Letters, December 19) makes a valid point about the current high cost of electric vehicles, even though the future cost is likely to fall as the market increases and technology improves. But he makes a common mistake by asking “if one gets stuck in a serious blizzard ... how do you keep hypothermia at bay without incapacitating the ability of an all-electric vehicle to move itself?”
The simple answer is: depending on the relative capacity of the EV battery or conventional petrol tank, both vehicle types have exactly the same problem, but an EV battery will keep you warm without the carbon monoxide poisoning risk.
Derek Ball
Bearsden
NEIL Lennon was given most of Saturday’s back page to air his views but where in the paper did it mention that two teams were involved in the Scottish Cup final? Why no mention of Hearts?
R Clark
Midlothian
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