IT’S not long now until the Scottish parliamentary elections, and it’s growing ever more apparent that we need to ensure the election of another majority SNP government. The only way that we can be certain of having a second independence referendum, and even more importantly winning it, is if we keep the momentum going. If the SNP come out of this coming election with fewer seats than before, then that momentum is lost and we put the entire independence movement at risk.

Personally I feel caught between a rock and a hard place here, since I’m going to have to abstain in the constituency vote. There’s a lot of talk and disagreement about who to give your list vote to, but some of us don’t have anyone to give our constituency vote to. The only pro-independence candidate in the constituency where I live is the local SNP MSP. Sadly he is to lesbian and gay rights as King Herod is to kindergartens, and since sometime over the course of the next Scottish Parliament I plan to marry an American, I’d be a whole lot more comfortable if I had an MSP who respected our right to wed if I have to contact him for assistance in dealing with the complexities of immigration law and getting my new husband into the country on a permanent footing. I’d rather not have a local constituency MSP who feels strongly that his God calls gay people to celibacy, because I feel every bit as strongly that my civil and human rights ought not to be a matter of his religious beliefs.

That leaves the list vote. I’ve got a lot of time for the Greens and would still give a list vote to them if I lived in the region where one of my best friends is standing for them, because he’s one of the good guys. There’s a great deal of what Rise says that makes sense and is appealing, and it would be great to see young and passionate voices like Cat Boyd get a platform in the Scottish parliament. But the truth is that it’s only with another SNP majority government that we can keep independence at the forefront of Scottish political debate. So my second vote will be going to the SNP.

I am not convinced by arguments that you can vote tactically in the list. It’s a system designed to ensure proportionality in the outcome, so if there’s an absolute majority for the SNP in my region, then an absolute majority of the MSPs returned will be SNP. Thankfully those who have 19th-century views on the rights of lesbian and gay people are few and far between.

There is only one issue in Scottish politics more important than ensuring that we have a second independence referendum, and that’s ensuring that we win the referendum when it happens. Only a second majority SNP government in May can guarantee that Scotland stays on track for its eventual date with destiny. They might not be the most radical government in Scottish history, they’re certainly open to criticism on a number of grounds, but they have proven themselves to be a competent government which by and large makes the best of the poor hand dealt to it by the Westminster Parliament and the Tory Treasury.

However, in one area the SNP have excelled themselves and surpassed all expectations. The single greatest achievement of the SNP has been to normalise the idea of independence and not only to bring it squarely into the mainstream of Scottish political discourse, but to make it the single most important question in Scottish politics. The SNP have changed the idea of independence from a romantic dream held by a few into something that most consider to be an inevitability. It’s no longer a question of if Scotland should become independent, but of when. But that’s only going to remain the case as long as we have a majority SNP government and as long as the SNP are seen as the winners in Scottish politics.

If the SNP are returned with fewer seats than they got in 2011, even if there is still a pro-independence majority thanks to Greens and Rise MSPs, there’s only going to be one narrative in Scotland’s overwhelmingly Unionist media. That will be the story of how the voters of Scotland have punished the Scottish Government for holding the independence referendum and how the result is proof that a second referendum is not wanted. It will all be accompanied with exultant crowing at the supposed downfall of nationalism, and the battered shreds of the Unionist parties will be garlanded as the triumphant victors, even if they’ve lost votes and lost seats. Cue a nauseating series of articles hailing Ruth Davidson as the saviour of the Union.

There’s no balance or fairness in Scotland’s media landscape. Any talk of a Unionist victory under such circumstances would of course be a complete fiction, but when has a lack of truth ever stopped Scotland’s Unionist establishment from presenting their fantasies as fact? Despite all our talk of diversity, all our efforts to make the independence movement a broad church, the media identifies the cause of independence with the SNP, and any reversal of fortunes for that party will be presented as a reversal of fortunes for Scotland’s progress to self-determination and statehood. That might not be fair, but it’s the brutal reality.

Only with a second majority for the SNP will Scotland continue on its slow but steady progress to independence. Only with a second majority for the SNP can we persuade most people that a Scottish government can be quietly competent. And it’s only with a second majority for the SNP that we can be certain that if there is a change in circumstances that a Bill for a second independence referendum will be brought forward and won’t be blocked by the Unionists. Since these elections are being conducted under the shadow of the Conservatives’ EU referendum, the stakes are high indeed. We need an SNP majority to ensure that Scotland’s voice isn’t lost among the screams from the Tories.