I’ll fight until we achieve independence
I resigned my ministerial role last year to vote against the Gender Reform Bill.
I had been the Minister for Community Safety for over four years and it was a role I relished.
Resigning was a tough decision on an issue which I knew would draw much criticism. I stood in an abyss, not knowing what would happen.
Soon after the announcement, my phone alerts went off; slowly at first then a constant stream. Emails, tweets and messages rolled in, with the huge majority backing the position I took.
Media requests from all over the country and even overseas followed, all of which I declined. Then the headlines came in and one word dominated. Rebel.
I have never been a rebel.
In the comprehensive school I attended I was studious, I sang in the choir, played sports and worked in part- time jobs from the age of 13.
I went on to university, had a career in London and then moved back to Scotland to raise my twin sons.
I led a normal life. I never had a rebellious instinct but I always spoke up when I felt something was wrong.
When the independence referendum came along, I had jumped in right from the start. By the summer of 2014, I was campaigning full time for Yes.
There were some in the movement who felt like they had joined a rebellion to change the status quo. It was an exciting time in politics. There was a vision of what an independent Scotland would look like; strong, vibrant, inclusive and successful.
But my sense of what we were doing was different. I had a view of Scotland as a nation with its own identity which should manage its own affairs. I did not feel it was a rebellion, but the right thing to do.
And that is what I have always tried to follow – I do what I believe is the right thing.
I had no problem with our manifesto commitment to reform gender recognition. Everyone should have the right to live as who they are and nobody should be marginalised for doing so.
However, the bill we ended up with was selfidentification, where someone could simply claim to be of the other sex, without any safeguards in place.
I had serious concerns that self ID without safeguards would allow predatory men to cause harm. Women have won the right to have separate spaces for safety, dignity and privacy and for good reason.
The case of Isla Bryson, a convicted double rapist, claiminging to be a woman to enter the women’s prisonson estate, shows the determina-etermination of some violentviolent men to access vulnerableulnerable women.
I want the SNP to be a party where all of its poli-politicians can bringbring forward their views andnd ideas without fear.
I want a cultureulture where we workork across the Par-arliament to doo what is best for our citizens.
I will settle for nothing less than inde-dependence andnd I will fight end-dlessly until wewe finally achieveve that goal.
Not because I amm a rebel, but because it is the right thing to do.
I’ve always tried to do what I believe is the right thing