As we celebrate LGBT Pride season and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, now is a good time to reflect on how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. Until recently, Scotland was known for being a conservative-with-a-small-c country when it came to social attitudes – and our past treatment of LGBT people was nothing short of shameful.

It was only in the 80s that Westminster decriminalised homosexuality and even then, the law continued to discriminate against LGBT people. The birth of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 gave us the chance to choose a radically different path – and we did. Scotland now leads the UK on LGBT rights. I’m very proud of the role the SNP Government has played in securing that change.

We have introduced equal marriage and LGBT hate-crime laws, passed a Turing Law to pardon historical discriminatory convictions and opened adoption and IVF up to same-sex couples. Under the SNP, Scotland became one of the first countries to commit to LGBT-inclusive education in schools. Read more via Daily Record