A FORMER SNP minister has spoken out against Kate Forbes becoming leader of the party – saying her previous comments on LGBT rights were not "acceptable".
Marco Biagi, who voted for gay marriage while an MSP, said Forbes’s past refusal to say she supported the policy was “enough” for him to oppose any leadership pitch from the Finance Secretary.
Forbes made a comment against abortion at an event in 2018 and repeatedly evaded questions on her stance on equal marriage during a podcast interview with The Guardian in 2020.
A member of the conservative Free Church of Scotland, Forbes has often played her cards close to her chest on social policy issues and was absent for the vote on gender recognition reform earlier this year because she was on maternity leave.
The only evidence I can see of Kate Forbes being a social conservative is her anti-abortion call at the Brian Souter event and her repeated refusal to say she supports equal marriage, such as on this podcast. For me, that is enough. https://t.co/8audERUBnh
— Marco Biagi (@MarcoGBiagi) February 18, 2023
In a Twitter thread, Biagi said her past comments meant he believed her unfit for the job of First Minister.
Biagi said: “The only evidence I can see of Kate Forbes being a social conservative is her anti-abortion call at the Brian Souter event and her repeated refusal to say she supports equal marriage, such as on this podcast. For me, that is enough.
“I'm not going to assume she holds all the views of her church and try to tar her by association. Many religious people support LGBT rights. Many atheists don't. For me it is nothing to do with how anyone gets to the views, it is about those views that they actually hold.
“They are free to hold the views. I can deal with a big tent approach enough to accept someone holding those views in high office, if that office is mainly unrelated. I served in Holyrood and [the Scottish Government] with some people who held them, and was able to have professional relationships.
“But we campaigned long for equal marriage. As minister I signed the legislation enacting it. I was witness at the first ceremony. And, for me, if a candidate for First Minister of Scotland is asked whether they support equal marriage, the only acceptable answer starts with ‘yes’.
“I've just been through too much to now elect a leader for the country who, whatever their other strengths, can't even say they support LGBT people having this same basic right as they do.”
He posted a transcript of the 2020 Guardian interview in which Forbes was pressed to clarify her stance on gay marriage, repeatedly dodging the question.
In the interview, she was asked by host Jonathan Freedland whether she supported same-sex marriage.
She replied: “Well I think, I mean, within the SNP, there's two answers I'd give. One is, within the SNP, there's plenty of forum for debate, right?
“And even as a leader, there's plenty of forum for debate, but then they come to a conclusion and that conclusion stands.
“And when it comes to same-sex marriage, that was a decision that was taken a number of years ago, it is the law of the land, there's nothing that I'm doing in terms of campaigning on any of those points.
“You know, that is the position that the SNP has come to and you know, I've got plenty of other things to be debating and discussing.”
The Herald reported in 2018 Forbes had attended a prayer breakfast which featured a keynote speech from anti-Section 28 repeal campaigner and Stagecoach owner Brian Souter.
She was reported to have said: “May our politicians recognise that the way we treat the most vulnerable – whether the unborn or the terminally ill – is a measure of true progress.”
Forbes has not yet said whether she will run for the contest but is currently the bookies' favourite to win.
Biagi was the local government and community empowerment minister between 2014 and 2016 and now serves as an SNP councillor in Edinburgh.
A spokesperson for Forbes said: "Kate is currently on maternity leave and will be returning as constituency MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in due course.”
