Mick Hartley

LGBT Youth Scotland campaigns to introduce gender ideology in Scottish primary schools, with the blessing of the Scottish government. The charity's former chief executive is serving a life sentence for child sexual abuse, but no matter: the money and the support keep pouring in. Joan Smith has the latest:

There has been yet another twist in the scandal embroiling a Scottish charity for young gay and trans people. A man is reportedly suing LGBT Youth Scotland, claiming that its negligence exposed him to child sexual abuse. The complainant, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is seeking more than £100,000 in damages from the charity, which has faced a series of troubling revelations.

Last month, LGBT Youth Scotland lost funding from the BBC’s Children in Need after it was revealed that one of the authors of its “coming out” guide for children is a convicted paedophile. So is the charity’s former CEO, James Rennie, who is serving a life sentence after sexually assaulting a baby and being exposed as one of the leaders of Scotland’s biggest paedophile ring. The Times, reporting on the latest legal action, has described the organisation as “discredited”. But its website is unrepentant, boasting about its mission of “making Scotland a place where LGBT+ youth can flourish and thrive”.

Given the eagerness of public bodies to prove themselves “trans inclusive”, it should come as no surprise that the Scottish Government was one of a number of organisations to lavish funds on the charity (it received £1.4m in all last year, from a range of sources). But it raises questions about what has happened to safeguarding, which should surely be one of the founding principles of charities dealing with vulnerable children….

But the transformation of LGB organisations into proselytisers for “trans rights” seems to have relegated safeguarding to the back seat. As recently as April this year, when the Cass Report exposed the lack of knowledge about the long-term effects of puberty blockers on young people, LGBT Youth Scotland described them as “wonderful” and opposed a pause in prescribing. “Am I trans?” a box on the charity’s website asks….

The fear of being labelled “transphobic” has turned some of the country’s best known charities, including the Girl Guides, into a laughing stock. “Girlguiding promotes an inclusive and safe environment where all girls and young women, including trans girls and young women, should feel accepted,” its website declares, tacitly admitting that it’s no longer a girls’ organisation.

What’s astonishing about this is how quickly it’s happened. In a few short years, safeguarding has been repurposed as a species of prejudice, based not in genuine concern but prejudice against LGBT people. The word “trans” is akin to fairy dust, sprinkled in the eyes of credulous people — and the effects are already becoming apparent.

The rights of children to be protected from sexual predators has been trumped by the new trans cult. Janice Turner, back in August:

The oldest and gravest homophobic slur, the justification for Section 28, was that gay men can’t be trusted around children. This myth was rightly demolished, yet since then a collective guilt has tipped the scales the other way. Anyone who raises safeguarding concerns about LGBT groups or individuals risks being called a bigot.

Ever since the T was added to the LGB.