Kate Forbes: ‘Equality Act protects Christians from discrimination too’

Christian MSP and former SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes has emphasised that the Equality Act 2010 has to protect everyone, including Christians.

In an interview with journalist Kevin McKenna, the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch said she received “literally thousands of letters and emails” of support, after being attacked for upholding biblical sexual ethics during the SNP leadership contest.

“That was the main story for me”, she said, “that there are enough people in Scotland who won’t tolerate infringement on freedom of speech; infringement on religious conscience and infringement of protected characteristics”.

‘Protected’

Forbes explained: “If the Equality Act exists it must exist for every role in society. It doesn’t just exist for the cleaner or the teacher. Surely it also exists for the First Minister of Scotland or for those who aspire to be. Religious faith, as with other characteristics in the Equality Act, is protected.”

She reflected that just days after launching her leadership campaign, she was anxious about visits to Tesco and a Ross County football match but people actually stopped her to offer their support.

“It told me that however you are traduced in the public domain, the people of Scotland are smarter and more tolerant than that. They’ve thought these things through. They don’t like being gas-lighted.”

‘Fear’

Earlier this year, Forbes warned against a culture of fear pushing those with religious beliefs out of politics.

In an interview with the BBC, Forbes said that in her opinion “people of faith are a minority” in politics, and “certainly my experience is that they are, by and large, fearful. So they either feel like they have to hide their faith or they have to adapt their faith. And that, I think, is a cause for concern.”

But the MSP said she didn’t attempt to make her views “more palatable or politically correct”, because following Jesus’ teachings “means that I don’t feel I’m in a position to just pick and choose what I believe is truth or not”.