Former SNP leadership hopeful Kate Forbes has claimed her supporters abandoned her because they were afraid of being "hounded".
The Highland MSP lost many of her early backers in the first week of the SNP leadership campaign after she said she would have voted against gay marriage and that people should not have children outside of wedlock.
She had been believed to be an early frontrunner but her comments dented her prospects.
Speaking in a debate hosted by think-tank Reform Scotland today, Forbes said that it was "very dangerous for democracy" that her supporters withdrew their support due to fear of being harassed.
She said: "I was really struck during my own situation, that those who knew my views and came out instinctively in support of me and then withdrew support, were fearful of being hounded themselves in the same way that I was being hounded.
"They had to abandon public support for fear that they too would be subject to the same treatment. And that's very dangerous for democracy and for good law because, ironically enough, democracy demands disagreement."
Forbes faced calls to withdraw from the race soon after she made her comments but she remained in the running until the end.
She eventually lost out to Humza Yousaf, winning 48 per cent of the vote after the second round.
Forbes had also said that she would have voted against the Scottish Government's gender reform laws if she had not been ion maternity leave.
The Reform Scotland debate also included former Tory MSP Adam Tomkins and SNP MP Joanna Cherry, who threatened legal action against The Stand comedy club after it cancelled an event because of her views on trans rights.
Forbes claimed that the public were "fed up of being scared and intimidated" when it comes to debating self-identification for transgender people.
She said: "The public, I think are fed up of being scared and intimidated themselves from saying that... which is widely accepted as fact.
"And they are fed up of being scared and intimidated by seeing what public figures are subject to.
"So I think there's a backlash to the backlash from the majority in Scotland and from individuals with whom I would disagree and who disagree with me."
Forbes also claimed that there is a "culture of fear" which is supressing freedom of debate.
She said: "This is really a battle of culture, not of legal rights... I think the law generally has found in favour of that right which we know we possess when it comes to freedom of speech.
"It's the culture of fear that is suppressing the opportunity to have a fear free debate."
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