Emma Cowing: Oh, for some straight talking on gay rights

Published on Tuesday 9 August 2011 01:24

I'VE NEVER been a big fan of the wooden shoes look, but last weekend, I felt a sudden urge to go Dutch. On Saturday, while anxious MSPs in Scotland were wringing their hands over SNP MSP John Mason's bizarre parliamentary motion which stated that "no person or organisation should be forced to be involved or to approve of same-sex marriage", the Dutch were lining up to watch their national military flaunt their gay pride with, well, gay abandon.

For the first time, the Dutch military had its own barge float at the famous Amsterdam Gay Pride Parade. It came sailing down the Prinsengracht canal containing a number of saluting gay and straight military officers in a show of remarkable solidarity that the rest of the world would do well to pay attention to.

For it is in a sharp contrast to some of the anxious, cross-legged attitudes towards gay men and lesbians not just in the military, but in so many walks of life, that still exist in Scotland today.

Recently, the notorious Westboro Baptist Church in the US (whose founders, the Phelps family, have often laboured under the moniker of "the most hated family in America") criticised the Church of Scotland for delaying for two years its decision on whether to allow gay men and women to join the clergy.

Westboro, which is well known for bandying about bonkers notions such as the idea US soldiers are dying in Afghanistan because of America's more tolerant attitudes towards homosexuality, declared Scotland was doomed for containing a church that was even considering such a notion.

Surely, though, the question should be why they have delayed the motion for so long? The Church has talked compassionately about how the issue needs to be addressed sensitively and carefully, yet I cannot help but feel its decision to stall for so long is merely a sop to those vocal elements within the Church that publicly abhor the concept of gay ministers at all.

Then there is Mason's motion, stating his opposition to the legalisation of same-sex marriage, which has already attracted the support of a number of other MSPs - Bill Walker, Dave Thompson and Richard Lyle. What, one wonders, is he driving at? Does he sincerely believe that people will be "forced" into having to "approve" of same-sex marriage? What does such a phrase even mean?

On many levels in this country, we have equality. But I worry that, at an institutional level, a certain level of bigotry and even discomfort over gay rights remains. While we patted ourselves on the back on becoming one of the first European countries to allow gay civil partnerships, it seems we are now baulking at the final hurdle. The Section 28 debacle suddenly does not seem so very far away.

MEP Alyn Smith, writing at the weekend and himself gay, pointed out that while there should be room in society for people with all views on the subject, there should be no room for tolerating discrimination. Indeed, a number of MSPs have gone so far as describing Mason's motion as "anti-gay".Whether it is or not, it lifts up a nasty little rock that exposes the sort of attitudes that, by 2011, should have been firmly consigned to the history books.

Labour has prodded Alex Salmond to distance himself from Mason's motion and lay down a timetable for consultation on the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Instead, the Scottish Government has spoken vaguely about holding the discussion "later this year".

Perhaps ministers are nervous about opening up the debate. They shouldn't be. Mason's motion suggests these attitudes need to be discussed in the open, if we are ever to have a frank and honest debate about the future equality of gay men and women in this country.

Unlike the Dutch, we still have a long way to go.