Dr Q Manivannan and Iris Duane both secured seats for the Scottish Green Party
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGES VIA INSTAGRAM (@IRISDUANE_MSP AND @Q.UEERING)
History was made last week when Scotland elected its first two trans MSPs (Member of the Scottish Parliament) to the Holyrood parliament.
Dr Q Manivannan and Iris Duane both won seats for the Scottish Green Party, part of the party’s strongest ever Scottish Parliament result. Dr Q Manivannan was elected in Edinburgh and Lothians East, while Iris Duane secured a seat representing Glasgow.
Following the election results, Dr Manivannan addressed a crowd saying, “My name is Dr Q Manivannan, I am a transgender Tamil immigrant, my pronouns are they/them.” Born in the Tamil Nadu state of India, Dr Manivannan moved to Scotland in 2021 to study for a doctorate in international relations at the University of St Andrews.
They added: “I am to some in this country everything that the hateful despise, and I am standing here as your MSP now with care. They say politics is the art of the possible, a politics of care I would say expands what is possible for everyone left behind, pushed out, or never invited in.”
“Every barrier placed before me with the Greens was the reason also that we pushed further. This is what diversity looks like in power.”
Alongside Dr Manivannan, Iris Duane’s election was also a huge win for the trans community in Scotland. Brought up in Bradford, Duane joined the Scottish Green Party after she went to university to read politics and social policy at the University of Glasgow. In 2023, Duane was included in Young Women Scotland’s 30 Under 30 list.
Three Green MSPs were elected in Glasgow at this recent election, making the Scottish Green Party the second largest party in the region.
In Duane’s Instagram bio, she wrote: “Let’s make hope normal again.”
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