Pride Month

Stewart Malcolm McDonald Excerpts

Thursday 1st July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South) (SNP)]

You timed that rather well, Madam Deputy Speaker; God is shining on us this afternoon, is he not?

I am grateful to be called in this debate and I congratulate the hon. Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle) and others on securing it. Like others, I commend the actually beautiful speech from the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Dan Carden). He will be called brave and all sorts of things from now on, but “beautiful” is the best way to describe what he chose to do this afternoon. Like the whole House, I am sure, I wish him well in whatever he goes on to do next.

As has been mentioned quite a few times in the debate, this is the gayest Parliament in the world. The great irony is that, if we go back to 2015, it was the arrival of so many Scottish National party Members of Parliament that made this place the gayest Parliament in the world. So when we go, as we will eventually, hon. Members will have a job to do in maintaining that status —and in that, of course, we will wish our neighbours well.

It has been said that we have to take account of the progress that we have made—and progress has undoubtedly been made. There are the recent changes to allow men who have sex with men to give blood; I was pleased to play a small part in that as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on blood donation, along with my friend, Paula Sherriff, the former Labour Member of Parliament—she is no longer with us in Parliament, and the House misses her dearly.

There have been all kinds of other progress over the years—marriage, adoption rights and education. A Scot, in the form of Lawrence Chaney, has finally won “RuPaul’s Drag Race”—arguably for many people, the best bit of progress that we have made. Of course, it is the case that, as Pride Month becomes more visible and more people attend, the corporations, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stirling (Alyn Smith) has said, will get in on it as well. It is great to see flags on buses and trains, and when we go into shopping centres or down the high street we see rainbow flags everywhere. I say to the corporations, however, that Pride is not just for the month of June; it is not about flying a rainbow flag, taking it down the next day and going back to business as usual. Standing in solidarity with us is about more than just flying those flags. When the corporations release their special Pride products for the month of June next year, how about some of the profits go to help LGBT+ charities in this country and elsewhere, rather than cashing in on something that, thankfully, is at least popular for some?

As others have said, Pride has been cancelled/put online for the past 12 months. Last year I hosted a weekly series of online Pride events with various activists in eastern European and central Asian countries. What a learning experience that was. I thank activists in countries such as Georgia, as mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (Martin Docherty-Hughes), and, as Members would expect, I thank activists for the work that goes on in Ukraine, including my friend Maxim Eristavi, who does so much to raise the profile of this issue all around the world but in particular in that region of Europe. My most memorable Pride happened three years ago in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. There was not a single Coca-Cola float or any other big brand. It was a proper shouting protest. And my goodness, the bravery that they show in continuing to do that is an inspiration to us all.

As has been said, the progress made is great but we want to see action on conversion therapy. I had never thought of my own experience as being one of conversion therapy, but it goes back to when I was a teenager and had got mixed up in an evangelical church for a couple of years. I remember the laying of hands on me, trying to pray the gay away, as it were. In fact, I had not even realised at that point that I might be gay. I know that that might be difficult for some people to even consider, but I remember being told at the time that it was bad for me, that God would deliver me from it and that it was a satanic spirit that was doing this to me. The confusion in my mind at the time was incredible, but until a recent discussion with a woman from the Christian church who is against conversion therapy, it had not even occurred to me that that was a form of conversion therapy. It is not always the case that people are sat on a chair in a room and talked at by people in white coats with Bibles or whatever; it is often more discreet, but equally sinister. The Comptroller of Her Majesty’s Household is a good man, but I implore the Government to bring this forward without delay.

The last thing I want to mention is the issue of transgender rights and the well of poison that that discussion has become. We do not have a community if we expel one part of it. I refuse to do so, and I know that Members in this House will refuse to let it happen. However, it has become, I am afraid to say, the polite bigotry of the middle classes. Transphobia is acceptable in the good newspapers—The Times, the Telegraph and the Glasgow Herald. It has become entirely acceptable. If some of the things that we read, like the obsessions about girls wearing trousers to school, were written by an imam, people would go tonto—they would go off their nuts—but they are written by these privileged and largely, though not exclusively, white, middle-class people who have become so radicalised on the issue. My hon. Friend the Member for Stirling and others have mentioned the online discussions. This is radicalisation and there is no other way to describe it. Where does it take us? Last month was the anniversary of the shooting in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Right now on Netflix we can watch a documentary about the Soho bombing that happened just over 20 years ago. We see young people—this was mentioned by the previous speaker—being attacked in the street for who they are. We are heading for something bad if this does not get dealt with, if this is not tackled and if those of us who do stand with trans people do not come out vigorously in their defence.

What gives me hope? Yes, I get discouraged by all that poison. Yes, I get discouraged by the fact that, in this rather perverse debate we now have, Stonewall is now akin to ISIS in some people’s view. Rape crisis centres that help or employ trans people are being targeted by bigots and bullies. All that gets me down, but what gives me hope is the young people who do not give up. I get exhausted with it, but I keep going and keep doing what I can. When I see young people involved in Stonewall, the Equality Network and their own political parties coming together and fighting that poisonous disinformation and ensuring that steps always go forward and not backwards, that is what gives me hope.

The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) said that nobody should be restrained in having to be who they are—even Liberal Democrats, I would extend that to. [Laughter.] That is so important and all power to their elbow. I will be with them side by side, but it is a fight we need the Government to get onside with too.