An international gay rights group has condemned “dangerous and irresponsible” claims by Alex Salmond’s Alba Party that it is campaigning to lower the age of consent to ten years old.
Margaret Lynch, an Alba candidate for Central Scotland, claimed proponents of “queer theory” want to lower the age of consent. Alba said her remarks were “based on fact”.
The row stems from a misrepresentation of the term “adolescent” adopted by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), a global alliance of more than 1,300 groups which includes Stonewall Scotland and LGBT Youth Scotland.
ILGA signed a women’s rights declaration that seeks the global repeal of “laws limiting legal capacity of adolescents, people with disabilities or other groups to provide consent to sex”.
The declaration cites laws that impede “bodily autonomy” such as the criminalisation of same-sex intimacy, gender affirmation, abortion or HIV non-disclosure — or authorise forced abortion, sterilisation or contraception. It does not mention age of consent.
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ILGA said it “categorically, and in no uncertain terms, does not advocate to eliminate or lower the general age of consent, nor supports paedophilia in any way, shape or form”.
Stonewall, the gay rights group, has also condemned Lynch’s comments.
The UN broadly defines adolescents as people “from ages 10 to 19 . . . in a phase of evolving capacities in which they can take partial or full responsibility for certain actions”. The Scottish Green party’s LGBT wing, said: “Any political party or candidates that are complicit in this hatred have no place in a modern progressive Scotland”.
