I DEBATED with myself over whether writing this column was a good idea. Knowing how baseless and malicious the ongoing attacks on LGBT organisations are, part of me still clings to the idea that they ought not to be dignified with a response. 

Unfortunately, though, we’ve passed the point where concerted efforts to undermine the reputations of LGBT charities can be safely ignored as the hobby of a bizarre bunch of internet addicts. 

When a group of Scottish Conservative MSPs have taken up the mantle, aided and abetted by journalists ranging from the tabloid press right up to the BBC, silence is not an option. 

When funders are cutting off resources to charities based on the fear of backlash from the braying mob, this poses an existential threat to services that LGBT people rely on.  This is the situation currently facing LGBT Youth Scotland, a national charity which provides youth groups and support for LGBT young people aged 13-25 and runs a “charter programme” to support and train organisations and schools around LGBT inclusion. 

Last month, Conservative MSP Pam Gosal took to social media, sharing a letter she had sent to East Dunbartonshire Council, complaining that two primary schools were taking part in the LGBT Charter which she (erroneously) described as a “pilot”, and branded “not age appropriate”, despite clearly having no idea what the programme was, never mind its contents. 

Gosal also criticised the organisation for promoting “trans ideology” – which means nothing more than an acceptance that trans people exist and is something that is true of every LGBT organisation in the country. 

Most egregiously though, Gosal repeated claims which have made their way into the press numerous times this year in an effort to cast doubt on the organisation’s suitability to work with schools.  First, she pointed to the fact that the charity’s former chief executive James Rennie was convicted of leading a paedophile ring and sexually abusing young children.

She failed to mention that Rennie was CEO until early 2008 and that the conviction took place in 2009, after Rennie left the organisation – he was suspended on being arrested in February 2008 and resigned during a subsequent disciplinary process – or that the police investigation found no connection between Rennie’s horrific crimes and the work of the organisation.

For campaigners and politicians who would rather see no mention of LGBT people in schools to dredge up such a disturbing case more than 15 years later to further their own agenda is nothing short of disgusting.  It demeans the suffering of the victims involved; it diminishes the seriousness and sensitivity with which we should be discussing any instance of child sexual abuse; and it seeks to paint an entire group of people with the same ugly brush with absolutely no grounds for doing so. 

READ MORE: The far-right is not a partner, it’s a predator, as France learned

Next, Gosal’s letter stated that a man who co-wrote one of the organisation’s “coming out guides” in 2010 has also been convicted of child sex offences. She failed to mention that he was convicted just this year, while his historic contribution to the guide was as one member of a group of young people – service users – who were asked for their input. The guide has also been updated since then.

Of course, the MSP might be forgiven for her lack of clarity, given that the media have been anything but clear or accurate in its reporting of this story.

The simple fact is that if this man had accessed the services of a different charity 15 years prior to being convicted of a crime the name of the organisation might not have been reported in the media at all.

Given the statistical link between adverse experiences in childhood and adult involvement with the criminal justice system, it would not be hard to generate headlines with the names of this or that support service once used by a whole list of people who have received convictions.

What is happening here is not complicated. It is bare-faced bigotry, where every straight, cis man who harms people is an individual, but every gay or trans person who does so is representative of every LGBT person and organisation.

As upsetting as it is to see an elected representative exploit cases of child sexual abuse in this way, this is nothing compared to the realisation that it is working. It was working before Gosal even thought to join in, which might just be why she did so. 

In September, it was reported that the BBC’s Children in Need (CiN) had withdrawn funding from LGBT Youth Scotland after suspending it in May and conducting a three-month review which concluded there was a “reputational risk” to the funder.

Two weeks ago, the chair of CiN, Rosie Millard, quit and shared her resignation letter with The Times. Millard claims the review came about after she highlighted Rennie’s 2009 conviction and that the decision to axe the funding was only made “out of fear of publicity”, while CiN’s senior management failed to take the matter seriously enough. 

Well, I might just agree with Millard – but from exactly the opposite perspective. As a funder who began making grants to the charity around two years after Rennie’s arrest, CiN should have been well aware of the situation and would rightly have made their decision based on the policies, procedures and activities of the charity at the time – and every time they’ve funded them since.

READ MORE: One in four LGBT Scots faced discrimination in past year, poll finds

To suddenly change tack because of media pressure is the worst sort of hypocrisy. At a time when a number of LGBT organisations are under sustained and co-ordinated attack, it’s moral cowardice. 

The current obsession with LGBT Youth Scotland only makes them the latest target. We saw it when Black LGBT organisation Exist Loudly was accused of “grooming” for circulating an online survey aimed at young people aged 12-23. We saw it with Mermaids, an English charity for trans youth, which anti-trans campaigners and some sectors of the media have made it their mission to bring down.

And we saw it with Stonewall, when a list of public bodies pulled out from long-standing membership of their Diversity Champions scheme for no particular reason other than that transphobic hate mobs spent years vilifying them and any organisation associated with them.

And that’s precisely what all of this is for. This strident activism is all to instil fear, or at least a reticence, in those who would support LGBT inclusion by making an example of those who do openly support it.  When article after article publishes the names of schools signed up to the LGBT Charter alongside fear-mongering commentary, the intention is self-evident: to make schools think twice about proudly supporting LGBT young people. 

When schools are hounded on social media, in the press, and by MSPs for talking about LGBT people, this is the return of Section 28 by the back door. This is why I can’t, and won’t, stay silent. 

Last month, another Tory MSP, Tess White (above), questioned the Scottish Government on the funding they provide to LGBT Youth Scotland, and criticised the funding on BBC Debate Night. If these people get their way, there won’t be any LGBT organisations in Scotland and the lifeline support which has helped thousands of people will be gone. 

And yet, for every 10 hit pieces I’ve read on this charity this year, you’d be lucky to find one that questions this toxic narrative. If we don’t want to be dragged back 25 years and more by reactionary forces, we’re going to have to speak up. 

Among the first we might expect to speak out is Conservative MSP Annie Wells, who submitted a parliamentary motion in 2017 celebrating that children’s charity Barnardo’s Scotland had achieved the LGBT Charter Mark award – the very scheme some of her colleagues are now maligning. 

Or perhaps her colleague Dr Sandesh Gulhane, who submitted a motion in 2021 celebrating that a primary school in his constituency had achieved an award through the same programme, will speak up.

 Or Jamie Greene MSP, who strongly supported the Time for Inclusive Education campaign to ensure representation of LGBT people in the curriculum. 

Or maybe every Scottish Conservative who stood on the party’s 2016 Holyrood manifesto, which stated that “school inspections should specifically ask about school action on LGBT issues” and promised to create a “toolkit” for teachers on how to “tackle homophobic and transphobic bullying”.

If the media were interested in the truth and holding those in positions of power to account, they might well ask Tory MSPs whether they’ve changed their minds, and if so, why.

Then again, asking those questions would be to shine a light on just how disingenuous much of this furore really is, so I won’t hold my breath. I certainly won’t be waiting for the Tories to do the right thing.  Anti-LGBT voices are being allowed to control the conversation. It’s on the rest of us – especially those who hold any kind of power or platform – to change that.