“It said something really important about the kind of country modern Scotland was and hopefully still is”
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY FLICKR
In 2014, Scotland made a historic leap forward in the fight for equality by legalising same-sex marriage. The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 marked a pivotal moment in the nation’s commitment to inclusivity and human rights. The law took effect on 16 December 2014, with the first same-sex marriages taking place shortly thereafter.
Nicola Sturgeon was Deputy First Minister at the time and had been closely involved in the consultation and early stages of the legislation. In fact, on 31 December that year, just weeks after the law was passed, she attended the first lesbian wedding in Scotland for a “love-filled” evening. A decade after this landmark moment, DIVA sat down with Sturgeon to reflect on the importance of this moment for Scotland. She remarks that she had been “personally invested” in getting same-sex marriage passed due to her role within the legislation. “When I look back on that I think it was a really important moment for Scotland,” Sturgeon explains. “It said something really important about the kind of country modern Scotland was and hopefully still is.”
Aside from the strides forward the legislation provided, Sturgeon also believes that we should reflect on the way that it was achieved. “I find it quite striking that while it was controversial and there were people who were deeply opposed to it, including people in my own party, the debate was civilised,” she remarks. “It didn’t have any of the rancour or the thinly veiled prejudice that had characterized the repeal of section 28 just a few years earlier. It didn’t have the toxicity that characterises almost every debate these days.”
While Sturgeon looks back at this moment as a source of pride for Scotland’s legacy as an LGBTQIA-inclusive country, she also laments her fears for the future. Earlier this year, the Former Scottish First Minister spoke about how the abuse and backlash she received regarding her government’s proposed gender recognition reforms played a significant role in her decision to resign.
“I’ve had more abuse hurled at me on the issue of trans rights than I have on probably any other issue in my career and I am a politician who helped lead an independence referendum,” she tells me. “There are people who have muscled their way into that debate no doubt because they are transphobic but also because they want to push back rights generally. I do think that we need to be very vigilant about that as well.”
10 years on from the passing of same-sex marriage, Sturgeon hopes that Scotland can continue to be a place of LGBTQIA sanctuary. But at the minute, she’s not sure just how safe LGBTQIA people feel in Scotland. “We need to continue to tackle, deal with, and challenge at every single opportunity prejudice and intolerance wherever it exists and whoever it is targeted at.”
“We live in a time where that is tougher to do. For most of my political career, saying things like that was seen as the right thing to do. Now it gets you accused of being ‘woke’ and somehow out of touch with people,” she comments. “That’s tough but doing the right thing, saying the right thing and standing up for what you believe to be the right thing is something I believe every politician should do.”
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