In these febrile times of guilt by the merest whiff of association, and trial by Twitter, canny Scottish politicians know to cover their bahoochies. Those who’ve been paying attention won’t have been surprised that last week, when Joanna Cherry MP KC found herself on the prongs of the pitchfork wielding mob, few stood by her. Culture Secretary Angus Robertson MSP declined to speak out against Cherry’s cancellation by The Stand club in Edinburgh. The venue is owned by another one of her SNP colleagues, MP Tommy Sheppard — he also opted not to defend Cherry. 

The campaign against Cherry was ignited by comedian Bethany Black — a man with the balls to identify both as trans and a lesbian, who claimed the barrister and politician wanted to “exclude” people like him “from public life”. This is because Cherry has opposed the Gender Recognition Reform bill (GRR).

Associations with advocates of child abuse are curiously glossed over

It seems in Scotland as elsewhere, within a decade, women who once would’ve been celebrated as role models have been recast as malevolent creatures who exist to ensnare the unwary and hurt the vulnerable with their reality-based views. 

There are some dark corners in Scottish civil society that are strangely impervious to the searching torches of the woke inquisitors, however. It seems whilst the unremarkable view that sex is real and immutable is enough to relegate an experienced politician to the back benches, associations with advocates of child abuse are curiously glossed over.

Edinburgh is not just the hallowed birthplace of the enlightenment thinkers; it is also the home of the infamous Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE). In 1974, alongside Michael Hanson, Scottish campaigner Ian Dunn co-founded the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), which pushed for the “legal and social acceptance of paedophilic love”. A Labour activist and town planner, he was also instrumental in the formation of The Scottish Minorities Group (later known as Outright Scotland), which advocated for homosexual equality. PIE was disbanded in 1984, though arguably its legacy lives on.

When Dunn died in 1998, veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell wrote an obituary for The Independent that neglected to mention the departed’s dubious preoccupation with legalising sex between adults and children. Also omitted from the write-up were the words of a young man at Dunn’s funeral who, according to The Times, said that he was raped by Dunn as a 15-year-old and that he “came to make sure he was dead”.

Until 2006, the Ian Dunn memorial award for activism was given out each year by the Terrance Higgins Trust. Recipients include the current director of the Equality Network Tim Hopkins, the late Scottish Liberal Democrat Margaret Smith MSP, and sitting leader of the Scottish Green Party Patrick Harvie MSP. In 2014 Hopkins told the Scottish Daily Mail he’d lost the award. When questioned, Harvie condemned child abuse and called for the now discontinued award to be renamed.

Were one to use the modern metric of “guilt by proximity”, Harvie might also be questioned about a photograph that shows him sharing a platform with John Hein alongside other politicians. Hein, who died in 2020, was a well-respected gay rights campaigner and chair of Pride Scotia, though he admitted to being a member of PIE. When questioned by the Scottish Daily Mail, Hein claimed to have “never been sexually interested in children” but that “people misunderstood what PIE was about and they still do”.

It would of course be unfair to judge Harvie by his decision to accept an award named after an infamous paedophile rights campaigner. It would also be a stretch to condemn him for being photographed when standing next to former PIE member Hein — though far more benign associations have brought down aspiring politicians. Take Kate Forbes MSP, whose chances of leading her party crashed due to her traditional Christian views on equal marriage and abortion. It seems despite the wokesters within the Scottish government wanging on about diversity and inclusion, there are consequences for ambitious politicians whose religious faith marks them out as enemies.

It is not only individuals who are caught in the crosshairs of today’s self-appointed moral guardians; organisations are also targeted. When JK Rowling set-up Beira’s Place for female survivors of male violence, it was in part because in Scotland single-sex organisations are considered exclusionary by the government and can face threats to their funding. Indeed, Edinburgh’s Rape Crisis centre is headed by Mridul Wadhwa, an aspiring Green politician who identifies as a transwoman. Wadhwa drew criticism in 2021 for suggesting that rape victims with gender critical beliefs should “reframe” their trauma.

Kate Forbes is hardly going to pack Scotland’s youth off to Bible camp

Bizarrely, the Scottish government is running full tilt towards this exclusive brand of inclusion. A report from July last year into the £8m Equality and Human Rights (EHR) fund boasts “there has been a focus on strategic influencing, in particular on Trans [capitalisation theirs] equality”. Charities that have benefited from the largesse of a Scottish government include the aforementioned Equality Network headed by Tim Hopkins, which has been granted £1,509,852; Engender which was awarded £1,066,593; and LGBT Youth Scotland which has been given £863,671.

State sponsorship of what is effectively a grievance gravy train is not the only issue. In 2009 former head of LBGT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS) James Rennie was imprisoned for raping a baby. He was found to be part of child abuse ring involving at least eight other men from across Scotland. To date, there hasn’t been an investigation into the charity he headed.

Sam Cowie is a gay man in Scotland who says he was groomed when under the care of LGBTYS. In 2010, he was 15-years-old and living in care when a social worker referred him to the charity. In an interview for Reduxx, Cowie claims:

I was plied with alcohol free of charge, encouraged to sleep with older men and given money to perform sexual acts.

LGBTYS rejected this, and a police investigation was dropped. Cowie tells me it’s “alarming and deeply upsetting to see them continue to profit from the tax-payer”.

He says the government has sent “a message to other victims and myself that our abuse doesn’t matter. The bigger picture from the eyes of the Scottish Government is more important to them than victims of serious childhood sexual abuse. It’s heart-breaking”.

For all the performative woke-scolding and claims to protect the vulnerable, questions about the legacy of PIE and links to foundational members of Scottish gay rights campaigns remain unanswered. Joanna Cherry KC MP is not about to deliver a Glasgow Kiss to trans-identified kids after a hard night on the Buckfast. Similarly, Kate Forbes is hardly going to pack Scotland’s youth off to Bible camp. Yet both these women have been smeared as posing a threat to vulnerable people for sticking to their principles on the GRR. All the while, trans lobby groups have grown fat on grants from the Scottish government. It is hard to escape the feeling that grievous injustices have been drowned out by cries of well-funded gender activists.