Rebel members have been kicked out of the Scottish Green Party for declaring that “sex is a biological reality” (Holyrood, Mail, Spectator, Times).
Signatories to the Scottish Green Declaration for Women’s Sex-Based Rights were accused of making the party less safe for trans and non-binary members in an official complaint from the party’s LGBTQI+ group.
Long-standing activists and Green party supporters endorsed the document, which was signed by more than 40 people with links to the party.
The unofficial declaration lists eight points, detailing the signatories’ beliefs, including that sex is a biological reality, sex-based language is vital in identifying and calling out the oppression of women, women and girls must retain the right to the use of language specifically referring to female anatomy, women have a right to maintain sex-based protections as in the Equality Act, lesbians are same-sex attracted and that “women and girls have the right to discuss policies which affect them without being abused, harassed or intimidated”.
In true, ultra-loyalist Scottish Green Party style it went on: “We know that globally women, as a sex, are disproportionately affected by climate change and environmental degradation, and that their empowerment is essential to our work as environmentalists.”
The declaration also states that debate about trans rights has been stifled by a party which now feels “very anti-women”, and has become increasingly hostile to dissenters.
As if to demonstrate the point, the then convenors of the party’s LGBTQI+ group, the ‘Rainbow Greens’, immediately reported the signatories to the party’s conduct and complaints committee. The complaint stated that the signatories had broken rules that prohibit the undermining of party policy, bullying, “behaviours that constitute prejudice based on sexual orientation or gender identity” and “behaviours that constitute a threat to others”.
A disciplinary investigation was launched soon after.
Now several members – including many who have spent decades campaigning for Green politics – have been expelled with immediate effect by the ruling Conduct and Complaints Committee.
In documents seen by Holyrood, a total of 13 Scottish Green Party members were accused of breaching its code of conduct by signing the declaration, which was published online in November last year.
David Jardine, 72, one of the expelled rebels who has been a Scottish Greens member for 40 years and contested two general elections for the party, said: “We have always been a tolerant party and we have been welcoming to trans people into the party and I feel they have betrayed the welcome that they were given by being so intransigent on this issue. These expulsions are a very shabby way to treat loyal members, including some long-standing activists.
“This is a gross over-reaction to our straightforward request for dialogue with the party leadership,” he added. “We asked for talks. We have a draconian disciplinary process.”
A Scottish Green Party document seen by the Spectator that records Green MSP Ross Greer as a witness blasts the women’s rights declaration, stating primly that:
Given the serious nature of this complaint and the serious breaches of the Scottish Green Party Code of Conduct, the only appropriate action to be taken on this occasion is that all current members who are signatories on the ‘declaration’ MUST be removed from the party with immediate effect, to ensure the safety of all trans and non-binary members of the Scottish Green Party.
Alas, it would seem that “Scotland still has much work to do if we’re to make progress toward a more equal society for women.” Not our words, the words of the ‘equalities’ section of the Scottish Green Party website.
