A high school student who is "gender fluid" was given a standing ovation after making an emotional appeal for more to be done to tackle bullying linked to sexuality.
Gaela Hanlon told activists at the SNP spring conference in Glasgow: "I can't bear to see any more of our kids at the point of taking their own lives."
The teenager spoke out as the conference passed a motion calling for the education system to be "fully inclusive" of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other gender and sexual minorities (LGBT+) to create a "safe equal and accepting environment for all of Scotland's young people".
The student told the conference: ""It wasn't easy for me to get up here to speak today, not just because I get nervous just speaking in front of my English class.
"But I struggled to fill out the speaker sheet. A speaker sheet has two boxes to be ticked, labelled male and female. "
They added: "This one had me stumped. See, I'm gender fluid. In simple terms this means I can not tell you that I am 100% male or 100% female, so to tick either of these boxes felt like a lie to me."
The campaigner continued: "I've been quite lucky in my high school, after explaining what gender fluid actually means a lot of the teachers are very accepting and I am allowed to use the toilet I choose.
"But I am not stupid, I know not everyone has it this easy. This country is filled with such ignorance and so many kids are bullied for identifying as LGBT+
"I was bullied when I came out, as were my LGBT+ friends.
"I have seen first hand 13 year olds who have been bullied to the point where they hate themselves so much they want to kill themselves. It happens all the time.
"One if four LGBT+ youths have attempted suicide due ot LGBT+ bullying.
"How long will we turn a blind eye to this, how many kids have to die."
SNP activists were told starting to tackle this is "as simple as teaching kids it's OK to be different,".
The student said: "If you're against this motion then I have to ask would you be willing to put a gun to a child's head, would you push me from a bridge. Because by refusing to do anything about the bullying in our schools, this is what we're doing. So I plead with conference to pass this."
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