The following motion, moved by a Radical Independence Campaign activist from Dundee, was passed by majority vote at RIC’s National Forum on Saturday 7 December 2019, which was attended by delegates from RIC groups across the length and breadth of Scotland.
This National Forum:
- Recognises and condemns the growing size and influence within the SNP and wider pro-independence movement of a reactionary wing distinguished by its hostility towards the LGBT+ community, particularly towards transgender people and their existing legal rights;
- Regrets that the Scottish Government has watered down and postponed its planned reforms of the outdated Gender Recognition Act 2004 in the face of pressure from this wing, and that the SNP’s 2019 general election manifesto no longer includes most of the LGBT+ policy pledges it made in 2017;
- Notes with alarm that prominent figures have adopted the language and tactics of the far-right in criticising LGBT+ activists within their own party and movement;
- Warns that the reactionary politics underpinning transphobia in the SNP can and has already manifested in hostility to other oppressed groups and their rights
- Believes that this trend will, if unchallenged, significantly undermine the struggle for an independent Scotland which is “committed to equality and opposition to discrimination” as per RIC’s founding principles, and alienate young and LGBT+ people from the independence movement;
- Affirms the particular importance for the left of championing solidarity in response to all manifestations of oppression and intolerance, both within and outwith our own movements and organisations, in order to build progressive working class unity.
And therefore resolves to:
- Firmly embed a no-tolerance approach to transphobia (including but not limited to refusing to recognise a trans person’s declared gender), homophobia, misogyny, racism and ableism in the Code of Conduct governing participation in the Radical Independence Campaign; and
- Support the immediate establishment of an autonomous LGBT+ wing of the Radical Independence Campaign, aimed at confronting bigotry within the Scottish independence movement, pushing for the empowerment of LGBT+ people in Scotland now and after independence, and bringing the energy and perspectives of LGBT+ people into the independence movement.