Criticism of gay marriage clouds Sturgeon’s succession to the Scottish Executive

Mixing politics and religion can be dangerous. However, even today there are public officials who ignore the history books and resort to this recipe for their own needs. The most recent case was the Scottish Finance Minister, Kate Forbes. Acknowledgment of the person responsible for Scottish finance to object to the approval Gay marriagewho had a seat in the Edinburgh Parliament when he was approved in 2014, hiding behind his faith, launched political storm which not only threatens to reduce his chances of succeeding Nicola Sturgeon as the region’s chief minister, but also deepens the rift these issues have caused in the pro-independence Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP).

“Kate has a perfect right to express her views, but party members have an equal right to decide whether someone who holds those views is the right person to be SNP leader and prime minister,” he told reporters on Wednesday. BBC , John Swinney, the current second in command of the regional executive and one of the most respected figures in the SNP.

The words of Swinney, who defines himself as “a man of deep Christian faith”, were interpreted by the press as an insinuation that Forbes is not right to take the reins of training and autonomous government.

Despite the candidate publicly apologizing for her remarks, calls have already begun to be heard for her to abandon her aspirations to succeed Sturgeon.

“Who wins with this? I don’t trust Kate, the party, or the cause [independentista] they benefit from this. This question will continue for the next five weeks, overshadowing everything else, including the question [el segundo referendo sobre] independence (…) I think this is the time when Kate should consider withdrawing from the race and avoid further damage to the party,” he said Guard Tony Giuliano, a high official of the separatist formation.

Forbes’ words could not have come at a worse time for the SNP. The formation lives in turbulent times, not only because of its administration’s stubbornness to convene new consultations on the UK’s secession, with or without London’s consent, but also because of its decision to approve Law on the Reform of Gender Recognition.

The instrument, which the British government has announced it will veto, removes the medical diagnosis requirement so that transsexual people can, from the age of 16, obtain legal recognition of the gender they have chosen to live in. That question sparked a heated debate, fueled by the case of a transgender inmate who raped other inmates in the women’s prison he was sent to.