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LAST UPDATE | 21 Feb 2023
A CANDIDATE IN the race to be the next leader of the Scottish National Party has said she is still running “at the moment”, as she came under sustained fire for her religious beliefs and comments on same sex marriage.
Kate Forbes is one of three candidates currently standing to replace Nicola Sturgeon as both First Minister and Scottish National Party (SNP) leader.
But Forbes, a member of the Free Church of Scotland, lost some of her high profile supporters in the leadership contest after she said she would not have voted for gay marriage.
Equal marriage was made legal in Scotland in 2014 with an overwhelming majority of 105 votes to 18. Forbes was not elected until 2016.
She has now said that having children outside of marriage “would be wrong according to my faith” and is something she would personally “seek to avoid”.
Asked her views on this, she told Sky News that having a child out of wedlock “would be wrong according to my faith”, but stressed it was a choice for people to make in a free society.
NEW: SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes tells @SkyNews her faith says it’s “wrong” for children to be born outside of marriage & she would “seek to avoid”.
— Connor Gillies (@ConnorGillies) February 21, 2023
Also told me:
➖Trans rapist Isla Bryson is “man”.
➖NOT in favour making it easier for 16 &17yr olds to change gender. pic.twitter.com/GZNL74ODYg
She also said she had “celebrated” babies born to family members and friends who were unmarried.
“We either live in a tolerant society where I can celebrate the birth of children, irrespective of the family, or not and do celebrate those lives being brought into the world.”
Forbes was on maternity leave following the birth of her first child last year when she launched her campaign yesterday to succeed Sturgeon.
Within hours she had revealed she would not have voted for same-sex marriage if she had been in Holyrood when the legislation was passed, with these comments seeing her lose the support of some high-profile backers.
Asked by STV News if she was still committed to seeing her campaign through, despite that loss of support, Forbes said: “At the moment, yes.”
She added “at the moment” she was committed to continuing her campaign until 27 March – when the ballot for SNP members to choose their party’s new leader closes.
Forbes, Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and former community safety minister Ash Regan are all running in the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and First Minister following her surprise resignation announcement last week.
Forbes had earlier said that to be speaking forthrightly about her religious views, she had tried to “answer straight questions with straight answers”.
She told BBC Radio Scotland: “I understand people have very strong views on these matters. I think the public are longing for politicians to answer straight questions with straight answers and that’s certainly what I’ve tried to do in the media yesterday.”
She added that she would defend the rights of LGBT+ people to live “free of harassment, fear and prejudice”.
The Finance Secretary said: “My position on these matters is that I will defend to the hilt everybody’s rights in a pluralistic and tolerant society, to live and to love free of harassment and fear.”
Regan took to Twitter to indicate her support for same-sex marriage, saying simply “love is love”, while Yousaf stated he would “always fight for the equal rights of others”.
Asked what he thought of what Forbes had to say on same-sex marriage, he told the Good Morning Scotland programme: “It’s for her to defend her views, I’ve made my views very clear.
“I think my track record on equality issues speaks loud and clear.
“I’m a minority in this country, I have been my entire life and my rights don’t exist in some kind of vacuum, my rights are interdependent on other people’s rights and therefore I believe very firmly, in fact with every fibre in my being, that your equality is my equality, therefore I’ll always fight for the equal rights of others regardless of who they are.”
It comes after Yousaf said in an interview with Andrew Marr on LBC yesterday that he would not legislate on the basis of his faith and is a supporter of equal marriage.
Gillian Martin, the convener of Holyrood’s Health Committee also said she could no longer support Forbes as a result of her views on same-sex marriage.
Martin said: “For me that’s a red line. Fulsome support for equal marriage or nothing.”
Forbes has also said she would not have voted for the Scottish Government’s controversial Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill in its current form.
As she was on maternity leave, she did not participate in the final vote before the new year but has been clear on her opposition since 2019.
Regan is also opposed to the legislation – which has been blocked by Westminster – and stepped down from her role as community safety minister last year so she could vote against the Bill.
Yousaf, however, has made clear his support for the legislation, saying he would challenge the Section 35 order the UK Government used to veto it.
Speaking on the BBC, he described it as “an attempt by the UK Government to undermine the democratic will of the Scottish Parliament” and suggested Westminster was trying to “stoke a culture war.”
Yousaf said: “The fundamental principle here is a piece of legislation passed by the majority of Parliament which has a red pen put through it by the UK Government on a whim and that is not acceptable regardless of whether you believe in the legislation and the substance of it or not.”
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I’m not against same sex marriage but you have to respect someone’s point of view and their right to vote how they feel… something that seems to be lost in society nowadays. She also said she didn’t support same sex marriage but respects the democratic vote on it..
@Ciaran: she’s voting on important legislation with religion as her guide, she’s a very dangerous person to have leading the snp, what’s next on her hitlist I wonder
@Ciaran: She’s allowed her opinion. No one said she isn’t.
Others are allowed their opinion on HER opinion.
And her opinion sucks. IMO
And as leader she would have a huge amount of influence so no she shouldn’t lead the SNP (IMO). And hopefully those choosing the next leader agree.
@Ciaran: please explain what sky fairy club of homosexuality means
@Brianto: everyone uses something as a guide to form an opinion.. (actually America uses religion as a guide for politics “in god we trust”) but whatever her “guide” is.. it’s up to the electorate to decide if that represents their views, not the trolls of the journal.ie comments section
@michael walsh: read the previous comments … duh
@Ciaran: Only person trying to silence people here is you. All sides are allowed their opinions.
Every accusation is a confession……
@Ciaran: She’s entitled to her point of view and to vote however she wants, but likewise it’s important that her citizens know she’s not in support of equal rights for everyone.
She has to respect the democratic vote on it because what’s the alternative? Anyone who would allow their religious views to govern other people who don’t share them has no place at the helm of a country.
@Ciaran: I am neither religious nor gay but what I do know is that for most of my life, one of these things was denied the right to exist at the behest of the other. Like I said before, homophobic religious bigotry of this nature is not deserving of any respect. This is not a criticism of a belief system alone, but is a considered view based on the actions of the religious over many centuries in this country and others.
In any case, I am pretty sure that your God loves all of his children, and would certainly not support the oppression of sexual minorities that is carried out on his name to this day.
@Ciaran: I have read the previous comments and I still don’t understand your comment about the sky fairies club, what does that mean?please explain
@Kevin Collins: Very well said, Kevin. This obsession with this religion to the detriment of science, truth and human rights is really not helping anyone.
@Ciaran: Ciaran she’s entitled to her opinion, but let’s face it the religion she is clinging to has had far more sinister goings on than two men or two women consenting to a relationship and ultimately marriage.
@Brianto: no
@Ciaran: ciaran, as a gay man, how do I get myself some tickets to this sky fairy club?
@Ciaran: No. You can respect her right to have her opinion but you don’t have to respect that opinion. Telling people that they don’t have the same legal rights because of what you think your imaginary friend might think is not worth respecting. Civil marriage is none of the churches business and a politician who wants an unequal society is not worth voting for.
@michael walsh: sky fairy is a colloquial term from God or gods. Sky Daddy is another. I prefer invisible man.
@michael walsh: fictional fairy story like character that lives in the sky………Simples. Stop looking to be offended
@Ciaran: She is supposed to represent all the people!! I don’t get how people don’t understand that?
Fair play to her.
She must have know that outlining her view would run the serious risk of a backlash / losing the election.
I don’t agree with her but at least she has the courage of her convictions.
@Stanley Marsh: nope. No argument when your convictions mean other people suffer. Classic libertarian bs
@alan: Nope what? Nope she shouldn’t hold such opinions or nope she shouldn’t have made her opinions public or nope to both?
People are entitled to hold opinions whether we agree with them or not.
Isn’t it better that public officials make their views known so that voters can make an informed view.
@Stanley Marsh: she may have “The courage of her convictions” but she was running for the leaders position! Her judgment is woeful so she really isn’t up to the job!!
@Tom Kelly: You won’t get any arguments from me.
Are we watching the SNP turn into the DUP?
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype: I don’t think so, seeing as they have the same position, on both the above mentioned issues, for the same reason.
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype: Only if they withdraw entirely from the democratic process, hold their national assembly to ransom at the expense of their own people and economy, and start saying no to everything and everyone that isn’t them…
Diversity of opinion is not exclusively a Scottish thing, is it?
Anybody else see a contradiction, in what she says, on the two issues??? How can her Faith dictate her view, on one issue, but not on the other, when you’re saying that your Faith is “a contributing factor”?
@Pádraig Ó Tomhnair: People that express views based on the dictates of their faith, often do so because expressing the very same views without the faith card, would show them up for what they are, bigotry, xenophobia and other assorted craziness.
@David Van-Standen: If you can separate them. I just find it funny that her Faith dictates her opinion, on one issue, but not the other.
Same sex marriage!? Surprise, surprise.
Yeah, she better not get the leadership!
Fair play to her being up front and honest. Very few politicians will express their views conviction s if they don’t fit in with the popular narrative. As long as someone is willing to respect the democratic process and respect the fact that people may have views contrary to their own they have my respect. Unfortunately a lot of people struggle with the last part as evidenced by some if the comments here
Here we go (again), time to rip out what the last leadership did and start afresh, progress halted while support is garnered.
Ah good, more hate mongers in power. That’s exactly what we need.
She has said what she believes in.. want.. stands for.. don’t cancel /smear her because of that, don’t like her or don’t like her program you are free to vote against her, simple..
Well there goes any chance of Sturgeon’s push for trans equality being followed up on if one of her potential successors hasn’t even come around to gay marriage
Wow how terrified must they have been of Sturgeon taking steps forward that they try and replace her with someone who’s jogged back to the 1950’s. Her views are her own and she’s allowed to have them, but those are also views that brought about practices that ruined many many lives in this country. So for a politician to have them same views in 2023 is concerning that they can’t take a book written centuries ago with a pinch of salt when trying to also become leader of a county of diverse religious beliefs and also people who’s lives she just openly confessed to believing as wrong. What about unplanned pregnancies, rape victims, people who just don’t want to get married are they wrong. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion but also their opinion on others opinions and the right to disagree
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was…. religion…
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