Scottish Green candidate challenges Labour on LGBTQ+ education
"I want every young person in Rutherglen and Hamilton West to feel safe being who they are."
Cameron Eadie, a Scottish Green candidate states Lanarkshire’s Labour-run council is letting down young LGBTQ+ people.
Eadie is running in the upcoming Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.
In an open letter to the Scottish Labour candidate, Michael Shanks, Eadie condemns the decision to reject the inclusion of LGBTQ+ inclusive education into schools.
Instead, the South Lanarkshire Council have delayed the decision and sent it to an education committee.
Eadie described the decision as “deeply troubling” and has called for the Labour candidate to join him in opposing it.
“This was a very disappointing decision and I know that for many it will be seen as a cop-out,” Eadie also wrote.
“For some LGBTQ+ young people, having an education that includes and validates their experiences can be transformative.”
Eadie highlights that in recent years there’s been “a shocking increase in hate crimes against LGBTQ+ communities.”
The hostility has been fuelled by the kind of vile lies and scaremongering that truly inclusive education would educate against.
“I want every young person in Rutherglen and Hamilton West to feel safe being who they are, and schools have a crucial role to play in that.”
“I want every young person in Rutherglen and Hamilton West to feel safe”
Furthermore, Eadue calls on Shanks and Labour colleagues to “reconsider their indecision and delay and to deliver a fully inclusive education.”
In August, posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Labour councillor Martin Lennon shared details of an exchange with SNP councillor Katy Loudon.
“Labour voted to remit to education committee with a proper report so that it could be properly implemented,” Lennon wrote.
“I approached the SNP group before the meeting to assure that this was in good faith and that we supported the substance. Why are they completely misrepresenting this?
“We literally told them what we were doing and why, in advance. The chair and deputy chair of education then reiterated this in the meeting.
“I spoke to councillor Loudon immediately before and she said: ‘it might look like a sop to [people who oppose Time for Inclusive Education]. Me: ‘it’s not’. Loudon: ‘I know’.”
Lennon presumed the “deliberate misrepresentation” by the SNP would make it “more difficult to engage in good faith in future”.