WE are writing as national LGBT organisations in Scotland in response to the full-page advert placed in The Herald (January 17) by people who are opposed to the Scottish Government’s proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act. We know from our work across the country that the large majority of both LGB and trans people in Scotland support the proposed reforms.
Of course, LGBT people are very diverse, and there is a small minority who disagree with the proposals, just as, for example, a minority of LGBT people disagreed with the repeal of section 28 in 2000 and a minority disagreed with the equal marriage law in 2014.
That minority have a right to their opinion, and to state it to government and elsewhere. Contrary to the claim in the advert, the reforms are certainly not rushed, with two separate three-month public consultations spread over more than a year, the second open now, until March 17. The additionally consultative Scottish Parliament bill process is still to come.
In Scotland, we have a decades-long history of LGB and trans people working together, and working with other equality groups such as gender, race and disability organisations, to progress equality for all of us. That partnership involves listening to each other's needs, and gives us confidence that the gender recognition reforms can be delivered without negative impacts on anyone else's rights, including those of women and LGB people.
Equality for one group cannot be secured by attacking the rights of another group. Equality means equality for all, or it means nothing. We are committed to promoting it, in partnership and solidarity with others.
Mhairi Crawford, Chief Executive, LGBT Youth Scotland; Tim Hopkins, Director, Equality Network, Edinburgh.
Books are binding
I HAVE to admit to being in awe of R Russell Smith having plucked up the courage to clear out books from his shelves (Letters, January 15); he even admits to having read some of them twice, and now will be (hopefully) reading one or two for a third time.
From my first book, bought from Boots by my father in the 1940s, Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales with those gorgeous illustrations by W. Heath Robinson, to the latest, Make, Think, Imagine by John Browne, bought last year, my little library of more than 2,000 books covers most topics, countries, themes of history, science, poetry and literature. So how could I possibly emulate Mr Smith's determination and choose from which to part?
My books perch on chair-arms, underneath chairs, on their seats, as well as on great lengths of bookshelves. They are in the kitchen, shower-room, by my bed and even on the opposite end of my sofa. They are dear friends and I love them all. They make this house into my home. I have known most of them for many years; so I admire the strength of will displayed by Mr Smith and hope that he reads the stories of O Henry for a third time and maybe not include it in his next clear-out.
My 1928 copy of the works of O Henry ends with a few little verses ... a boy and girl say "it's the little things that count", after disagreeing what those little things will be. Very perceptive was O.Henry.
The three fiction books I read most often are Le Grand Meaulnes, Tristram Shandy and T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. Having a book titled Cotswold Privies in the downstairs toilet I am keeping my eyes open for one, possibly, called Scotia's Comfy Cludgies.
Thelma Edwards, Kelso.
Black Watch appeal
I AM currently writing a book on the Pipers of The Black Watch from 1725-2006.
I have exhausted most other areas of research, including the regimental archives, and would like to ask your readers if they knew of, were related to, or were indeed a piper in the Black Watch to please get in touch.
Names, Photographs, stories, piper memorabilia, are all being sort to help build up the stories of each man, and Battalion Pipes and Drums.
The First and Second World Wars are the areas I am working through at the moment and hope to start on post-war/Korea in the next few months.
I served as Pipe Major of the regiment myself and have been working on this for a long time to preserve the memory of these soldiers and provide a reference for the future.
I am also interested in the founders of the Red Hackle Pipe Band in Glasgow in the 1940s. They were Black Watch men
Pipe Major A M Duthie, c/o The Black Watch Museum, Hay Street, Perth.
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